Manilva Pedestrian Path to Sabinillas Closer to Tender Manilva pedestrian path moves closer to tender after the council signs boundary agreements with landowners for the second phase to Sabinillas. Manilva has taken a decisive step towards building the second phase of the pedestrian path that will finally link the hilltop village with the coastal heart of Sabinillas, after the town council signed boundary agreements with the families who own the land crossed by the planned route. The signing, carried out by mayor Mario Jiménez together with councillor Rogelio Pascual, clears the last significant administrative obstacle before the works can go out to tender. Getting the land question settled The boundary agreements signed this week deal with the quietest yet most decisive part of any public works project: who owns the strip of ground the path will run across, and exactly where the public corridor begins and ends. By settling those lines with the affected landowning families out of court, the council avoids the years of expropriation battles that have delayed similar projects elsewhere on the coast. The route can now be defined precisely on paper, which in a municipality like Manilva, where settlement, farmland and old boundaries overlap in confusing ways, is no small achievement. The details of the project According to the figures published by the council, the new stretch will measure around three hundred metres and will cost just over 1.25 million euros, precisely 1,258,467 euros. On paper three hundred metres may not sound dramatic, but this is the section that closes the gap between the existing path and a continuous, safe walking corridor between the village and Sabinillas. Once finished, a pedestrian will be able to walk between the two population centres without sharing a road with fast-moving traffic. Why it matters Today, anyone walking between Manilva village and the sea follows the shoulder of a busy road for at least part of the journey. For schoolchildren, older residents and the many visitors who explore the municipality without a car, that missing link is the least pleasant stretch of an otherwise beautiful walk. Completing the route changes the daily mathematics of the municipality: it becomes realistic to walk down to Sabinillas for shopping, for the beach or for an evening stroll, and realistic to walk back up afterwards. It is the sort of infrastructure that quietly improves health, reduces short car journeys and makes the municipality feel like one community rather than a scatter of separate barrios. A programme with momentum The two phases of the path are part of a broader pattern of visible investment by the Manilva council. A new youth centre has recently opened its doors in Sabinillas at the Puerta del Mar polyvalent centre, and the municipality has kept up a steady rhythm of community programming, from welfare events to sports activities that regularly fill hundreds of places without a seat to spare. The pedestrian path is the largest single item in that programme, and the fact that it is moving towards tender on schedule rather than gathering dust is itself newsworthy on a coast where promised footpaths have a habit of disappearing between budget years. The question of cost Not everything about the project is uncontroversial. Figures released with the tender preparation show that the second phase will cost considerably more per metre than the first, a gap that has already attracted comment among residents who remember the earlier works. The council's argument runs through the practical realities of the remaining terrain and the cost of land arrangements, both of which bulk larger in a short closing section than they would across a longer run. In dialogue with a public that follows municipal accounts closely, transparency on how those numbers were built will matter as much as the signing ceremony did. What happens next With the boundary agreements signed, the next months belong to the procurement process. The tender will be published, contractors will submit their offers, and the council will then choose the company to carry out the works. If that timetable holds, Manilva could see construction start during the coming cycle. For a municipality that has spent the past year opening facilities and hosting record community events, a finished walking link between village and coast would be the most durable proof that the investment has been more than a season's headlines. The distance is short; the difference, residents hope, will be permanent.