For anyone coming to Javea this year please note that the police have complained to the council that they are having problems differentiating between parking and camping.

The council have now banned Motorhomes from parking on sea front roads with fines of between 50 and 100 Euros, camping on the street or littering will risk a fine of 75-150 Euros and discharging grey waste will be 100-200 Euro fine.

Mike

I always thought that parking was just that, but camping was when you get chairs and tables out.


cabby

It is, but the town hall and Policia Local aren't clear on the difference, and until a court overthrows one of their fines, the local police will continue to do what the town hall tells them.
Bear in mind that local police here in spain are nothing like police in the UK; here they are simply local council employees, like teachers, cleaners etc. They are not part of any national force; they are employed by and do whatever their boss at the town hall says.

Having said all of that, Motorhomers really have been taking the **** in the Arenal area of Javea for a very very long time.
Lots of obvious "camping" not just parking from people staying there for long periods, and a lot of evidence that locals have photographed of emptying toilet cassettes into undergrowth around the area where they are prone top stay for weeks at a time.
Local expat and Spanish facebook groups get quite a few complaints about their behaviour I'm afraid.

Bloody typical, too mean to spend any money and sod everyone else.

cabby

Any particular nationalities offending the most?

No idea.

But it certainly ain't the locals (Spanish), so it'll be the Usual Suspect long-termer northern Europeans here: Brits, Germans, French, Dutch, etc.

In Spanish towns and cities, the Policia Municipal (Municipal Police), also known as the Policia Local or Guardia Urbana, is a police force organized at the municipal level.[1]

Municipal police are authorized in every town and city of 5,000 or more people. The Policía Municipal de Madrid is the largest force and the Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona is the second largest. In towns and villages that are too small to organize a municipal force, the function is performed by the Guardia Civil or by the Autonomous Community force. They are in some villages assisted by uniformed municipal employees with limited law enforcement authority called Vigilantes Municipales, Although their powers are in most cases quite limited. The local police services of individual towns and cities supplement the work of the National Police Corps, dealing with such matters as traffic, parking, monitoring public demonstrations, guarding municipal buildings, and enforcing local ordinances. They also collaborate with the National Police Corps by providing personnel to assist in crowd control.

Numbering about 37,000 individuals in 1986, municipal police officers are generally armed only with pistols

THEY ARE NOT EMPLOYED BY THE TOWN HALL :"D :"D :"D

We are lucky to have our van and I try and remember how lucky we are so try and use designated areas ie aires or campsites. It is beyond me how people will spend 50k upwards on new vans then pennypinch like mad and alienate the locals thru bad behaviour. We have had to pull in in to a village carpark or road for one night enroute but it has been because the aires we have gone to has temporarily closed for refurb or similar and we considered it too risky to drive on. This has only been in France as we are always booked onto a site in Spain especially considering how busy the last two winters have been in Spain since the French/Germans/Belgiums etc have shied off wintering in Morroco/Tunsia.We have used free and pay for Aires in equal numbers and we have been the ones paying our dues, we witnessed the French/German/Belgiums scarpering before the local official has appeared to collect the money. Hence the rapid increase of barriers and pay for camping car aires in France. One official we spoke to said the Brits are the least likely to avoid paying in his opinion.
/

When I was in Javea last November there was a brand new top of the range N & B motorhome, towing an IQ on a trailer, parked near Scallops for about a week. Perhaps after spending that kind of money the owner can't afford site fees?

The mayor of Javea is quite happy for motorhomers to come to the town, but would simply prefer them to use one of the two campsites here. I have talked about establishing an aire, paid for or free, with simple facilities near the beach area with him in the past, but he is simply not interested. Like many of the local population (Spaniards and expats), he sees the tipping of waste where it shouldn't be tipped as the main problem. His concern over establishing an aire to counteract this habit is how he would drive out (ahem) travellers as opposed to motorhomers if they descended en masse on the place (unlikely imho, but there you go). What limited funds there are in the local budget are also being used for what he and the voting public see as the essentials rather than the desirables. As raised in another post, the mayor, too, is confused why people who own a vehicle that is worth quite a lot can't afford to pay for a campsite. Before you release the hounds on me, please note that I am simply reporting what this very likeable, effective and popular mayor and/or the town councillors have said to me in the recent past. Personally, I don't care whether motorhomers are parking, camping, aireing or campsiting in Javea... as long as they don't tip their waste where they shouldn't.

As for Local Police and who they work for, my friend is in the Local Police in Javea and would be fascinated to hear that he hasn't worked for the Town Hall for the past 30+ years!