The Torrevieja City Council is working on the last elements of the concession for a regulated parking service, often known as ORA or blue zone. This will let cars move around more easily and make sure that people who need to park on the street temporarily can find a space.
The Traffic Department has suggested this approach multiple times since 2019 in a city where drivers waste a lot of time looking for parking all year round. But according to information that is available to the public, the project is only now being completed. Torrevieja is one of the few cities in Spain of its size that doesn’t have a regulated parking system.
The main goal of the service is to make sure that parking spaces are evenly distributed within the city borders. This will encourage people to move their cars around so that everyone can go to businesses and government services. The project plans to control more than 3,500 parking spots in two separate areas: the city centre, which will have 1,900 spots, and the beach areas, which will have 1,640 spots. The beach areas will be new and will be located in large sections of the roads that run parallel and perpendicular to the coastline. Each location has its own traffic needs, and the project—still being worked on and finalised—says that separate rules and tariffs would apply to each one.
The Centre
A Blue Zone would be set up in the middle of Torrevieja for stays of medium length, with a two-hour parking limit. Like in other towns, the charges would go up over time. For example, the first 30 minutes would cost €0.40, the next 30 minutes would cost €0.70, and the last 30 minutes would cost €1.60.
On the other side, the Green Zone, which is meant to keep “critical” commercial streets like Ramón Gallud busy, is the only one with limited temporary parking. It lowers the maximum time to one hour but raises the price to discourage long-term parking. The first 30 minutes in this area cost €0.80, while a full hour costs €1.40. This price structure, which isn’t set in stone yet, is meant to swiftly free up the most popular parking spots so that people can get to local businesses more easily.
On the coast
The Socialist opposition disclosed this week that the Traffic Department hadn’t said until now that this parking rule will also apply to the busiest sections of the seaside, but only during the peak season. The beaches of Los Locos, Náufragos, El Cura, and La Mata would be marked with the colour orange. The maximum parking period here is four hours, but it costs more because there are so many tourists: the first 30 minutes cost €0.75, and the price goes up to €6.00 for the full four hours during peak season.
Meters for parking
The bid calls for the installation of about 70 new-generation parking meters and a mobile app, like the ones used in cities that offer this service. This application lets you pay without coins and has advanced features like extending the ticket via mobile device, time-out warnings, and, most importantly, a “park and release” option, where the user only pays for the time they really utilised.
The concessionaire must pay the corporation at least €135,000 a year, which means that the municipality will directly benefit from the provision of this public service. The corporation pays for the installation, maintenance, and staff costs, and it gets its money straight from ticket sales and the cancellation of parking tickets. Five years is the suggested concession term. The original plan said that it would start this year, 2026, which is also when the low-emission zone is supposed to start, which is mostly the same area as the regulated parking zone. However, the technical and legal details still need to be approved before the bidding process can start. This is too late to provide the tender time to start and the concession time to be awarded this year, especially since the election year is coming up.
The PSOE says that the tender requirements should put inhabitants first.
The Socialist Municipal Group of Torrevieja has asked the PP government team to make adjustments to the technical specifications of the forthcoming controlled parking service because they think certain of its rules hurt people who live in the city all year.
Bárbara Soler, the Socialist spokesperson, said that the document is still being looked at and that this is exactly why now is the ideal time to suggest changes.
The technical standards explain how to set up three different kinds of parking spots in the controlled parking system. First, there are blue zone spaces that are meant to make it easier for cars to move around. The rules say that everyone who uses these places can only park there for a certain amount of time. Residents, on the other hand, would not have a time limit. But the plan doesn’t say that residents will be able to park here for free. So, as it stands now, residents may still have to pay to park in these areas, even though there are no designated places just for them.
There are also green zone parking spaces in the system, where you can only park for an hour at a time. The PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) thinks that these kinds of places might make sense in some parts of the city because they seem to be meant to foster quick turnover related to business activities.
The PSOE’s primary worry, though, is the areas around the beaches that have been set aside for parking. The tender criteria say that parking is only allowed for four hours at a time. The document doesn’t create a difference between inhabitants and non-residents in certain locations, therefore a Torrevieja resident would have to follow the same restrictions as a casual visitor.
Soler said, “Limiting parking to four hours in beach areas might make sense to encourage tourist turnover, but it doesn’t make sense to apply that same limit to city residents who want to spend the day at the beach.” The PSOE thinks this shows a system that puts making money ahead of the needs of the people who live there.
The Socialists say that in other tourist towns like Benidorm or Alicante, regulated parking systems have clear safety features for residents.
“Regulated parking zones are usually meant to keep traffic flowing and make it easier for people to park, but they also make sure that locals have priority over tourists. That’s what happens in other places that are popular with tourists, and that’s what should happen in Torrevieja as well. Soler said, “It’s clear that the goal is to collect money from both visitors and residents, not to control parking.”
Because of this, the Socialist Municipal Group thinks it is important to change the tender specifications. One of their suggestions is to make parking easier for registered residents, especially in tourist-heavy areas like the coast. They also want to look at the time limit for parking in beach areas so that people who live in the city all year don’t have to deal with extra rules. The Socialist spokesperson said, “What we Socialists are asking for is very reasonable: that the system takes residents into account and that those who live in Torrevieja year-round have a clear advantage when it comes to parking compared to those who visit the city occasionally, as is the case in other coastal municipalities.”
