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What was once a straightforward place to leave your car at Murcia's Thader shopping centre has transformed into something resembling a permanent campsite, with motorhomes, water containers and solar panels spreading across the parking spaces.

 

And now, because that area has become so overcrowded, the overflow has started appearing at a second location near the Enrique Roca stadium and the Nueva Condomina shopping centre.

 

It's worth being clear that motorhomes parking in these kinds of locations isn't illegal in itself. Shopping centres like Thader even have designated bays set aside specifically for larger vehicles. The rules, however, are straightforward: the van stays within its space and nothing comes out of it. No awnings, no chairs, no tables, no equipment spread across neighbouring bays. The vehicle takes up one space and that's that.

 

The campers are almost exclusively foreign-registered, with French, Dutch, German and Belgian plates making up the majority. Some have been parked up for weeks or even months.

 

A popular app among motorhome travellers called Park4night lists both locations as handy free parking spots. Recent reviews describe the Thader site as completely full and set up like a proper campsite, with spaces being informally "reserved" using water bottles, and disputes breaking out when other drivers move them. The overall rating has been declining steadily throughout this year.

 

On paper, there’s a 72-hour parking limit at Thader. In practice, enforcement appears to be almost non-existent, and the Murcia City Council has acknowledged that controls will need to be tightened. They haven't ruled out looking for alternative dedicated sites, but nothing concrete has been announced.

 

The debate around motorhome tourism is one that divides opinion right across Spain. On one side of the argument, campervan travellers do spend money locally, in supermarkets, shops and restaurants, and they represent a type of tourism that tends to be quieter and lower impact than large hotel-based groups.

 

On the other, the sight of dozens of motorhomes occupying valuable car park space is something that frustrates shoppers, local businesses and regular visitors to the area who simply want somewhere to park.

 

But the main concern has to be waste. These aren't serviced pitches with enough bins or proper sewage facilities. The people staying in them have to manage their own water, their own rubbish and, critically, their own toilet waste.

 

With no dedicated facilities on either site, the question of where all of that ends up is definitely an important one.

 

Bearing in mind that it’s only February and the car parks are already overflowing, the pressure on both sites is only going to increase between now and September. Murcia is an attractive stopping point for northern European travellers making their way south, and word spreads quickly through the motorhome community once a free, well-located spot becomes known.

 

The council is going to need to do more than acknowledge the problem if it wants to get ahead of what could become a really disruptive situation for shoppers, football fans and residents over the coming months.

 

Image: Campers Click