Our view: Traffic jam blues

AFTER years of pain following the 2008 banking crisis, much of Spain has seen a remarkable recovery as far as housing is concerned and in many parts of the country the sight of towering cranes indicates the amount of new accommodations that is being built.

It’s good news for the economy as it creates employment and also generates income for local councils especially as many of the buyers, particularly in popular holiday areas, are foreigners either purchasing a holiday home or moving to Spain permanently.

Whilst there are fewer British buyers there are large numbers of Germans and other Europeans who don’t need to follow the 90/180 day rule, so the market is currently very buoyant.

There is however a major problem that certainly affects the Costa del Sol and we believe many of the areas where the seven editions of Euro Weekly News are distributed.

Basically, the more new builds on previously vacant land, the more traffic and in many cases, the infrastructure is not keeping up with the developments so that whilst each new urbanisation has brand new roads, they simply lead to exiting roads which can no longer cope with the volume of traffic hitting them.

In addition, whilst the Government is encouraging drivers to take public transport, there are whole areas where there are no trains and buses of course get caught up in the ever-growing traffic jams.

Spain has a huge amount of EU funding and is investing left, right and centre but with pressure to add or increase costs on toll roads, the country will see empty motorways and even more traffic on the free roads.