Manilva’s history with public transport has a new negative chapter, one without precedent. Last June, the urban bus that provides the local service was due to pass the Inspección Técnica Obligatoria (ITV, the compulsory vehicle inspection) in order to keep running in accordance with the law, which is quite firm on this point: without this periodic inspection, the vehicle cannot be on the road. At the beginning of August we publicly reported that this vehicle was operating its service as normal without there even being an appointment for this inspection, which would be requested a few days later. The date initially given at the inspection centre in Estepona was 6 September at 12:17, a date that was far from satisfactory, as the vehicle has to keep providing the service.
ITV Algeciras was another centre that was called to try to bring the date forward, and this succeeded, with the appointment moved up to Friday 25 August at 10:58. However, whether through an oversight or something we still cannot understand, the Town Hall announced that today (a week before the appointment) the bus service would be suspended for technical reasons.
According to information we have received from Algeciras, the vehicle arrived at the ITV station at the time of its appointment but without realising that it was a week early, so it was unable to have the inspection and had to return the same way. The urban bus service was nevertheless restored this morning with the same vehicle, which is now 14 years old and has close to 600,000 kilometres on the clock.
The whole morning without service achieved nothing, and next week the service will almost certainly have to be suspended again so that the bus can attend its appointment at the ITV in Algeciras.
To be continued….
