TIME TO MOVE ON?

Expats claim caravaners and van lifers are ruining the costas as they invade thousands of natural spaces and parking lots, dumping excrement, taking litres of water for free and even committing sex acts in the open air

WHEN Cor Vandenhoek moved to Torrox Costa nine years ago, he invested in one of the most expensive properties on the market under the promise that nothing would ever obscure his view to the sea

It was a vow that was sadly to be broken.

Just seven years later, the abandoned lot in front of the Dutchman’s upmarket Punta del Faro Urbanisation is ‘inundated’ with over around 60 new homes.

Not the sort of bricks and mortar properties that you might expect an expat homeowner would be complaining about sullying his view… but a phalanx of illegally-parked camper vans (see below), whose occupants’ behaviour leaves a lot to be desired.

The retired hotel owner has certainly got a point, with the long line up of campers stretching almost as far as the eye can see.

It is a similar picture at hundreds, possibly thousands of beauty spots, from Huelva up to the French border with Catalunya.

While ugly, it is what the so-called ‘van lifers’ get ers told WITH

EXCLUSIVE by up to in them - and outside of them, cruciallythat has most incensed Cor and, as the Olive Press has established, thousands of his neighbours and fellow expats along the costas.

“I wanted to retire and have a quiet life here but I have never seen such chaos. Torrox was a beautiful place, the Saint-Tropez of Spain, but now it’s being abused and we can do nothing about it,” the 75-year-old told the Olive Press Cor claims he has seen the caravaners ‘masturbate in broad daylight’ and ‘throw human faeces’ in the bushes from his balcony. And it’s a story we have been hearing for months, since we first reported on the issue.

“I can’t even walk my grandchildren to the beach because there’s dirty tissues, condoms and shit everywhere,” continued Cor, who sent us a series of photos as evidence, as have many other readers from around the costas.

The pensioner also claims the van lifers put their rubbish, including human waste, into his urbanizations’ bins, paid for out of each resident’s €128 per month maintenance costs.

It is a similar story up the coast in Fuengirola.

Age Care volunteer Ray Mynott, 77, told the

Olive Press that he had seen many caravaners dump excrement around the fairground.

“They also dump their shit in the storm drains, blocking them, or directly dump them in the nearby Parque del Rosario.

“When we go to walk the dog, there’s a really unpleasant smell and I’ve even seen someone park his van over the storm drain to empty his waste directly into it. This goes down into the river and into the sea.”

The former chauffeur continued: “I’ve also seen people take around 16 litres of water from the park in a single day. They literally just park up and fill all their containers. They don’t pay any taxes for that.”

And the local welfare leader added that many expats believe the van lifers are up to no good.

“A lot of people in the Los Boliches area do not feel safe anymore because we don’t know who these people are,” he explained.

“The council thinks it’s helping the economy, but when I asked one of the restaurant owners near the feria ground where they all park he told me all the campers do is use their toilets.”

And it is not as if the van lifers disagree.

Veteran traveller and member of the Catalan Caravaners Union (UCC) Cesar Semarro told the Olive Press this week: “There’s always some pigs that behave badly. They ruin it for the rest of us.”

However, he claimed this was a small minority of motorhome owners who do not represent the largely ‘respectful’ community.

The 78-year-old, who has been travelling