How the stairs use to look

Many visitors that came to Benidorm would demonstrate their love by leaving an initialed padlock in one of two places in the Old Town. Either on the stairs leading from Mal Pas beach up to the Mirador or up at the Mirador itself. In fact, it became a tourist attraction in its own right - many would come just to read the messages.

But back in August this came to a sudden and abrupt end as the Council started removing the handrail, citing complaints from residents and tourists. They argued that they were unable to use the handrail due to the padlocks and so climbing the stairs was  proving difficult and dangerous for them.

Some of the thousands which have disappeared

When Gema Amor accepted the position of deputy Mayor and Councillor for Tourism and Urbanism, one of the first things she took action on was the removal of the padlocks. At the time it was stated that these would be stored in a warehouse until a decision was made to decide what to do with them. There was even talk of finding another more suitable location for this phenomenon.

However, yesterday it was rumored that the padlocks and rail have been sold for scrap... the iron, copper and brass weighing in at more than 1,200 kilos.  However, this could not be confirmed by the Deputy Mayor or her department, who said that "for now, all that has been done is to weigh all the materials to see how much we could get by selling it"

It was not revealed how much the metal was worth or what has or will be done with the money acquired - assuming that the story is true. There has been no handrail along the stairs since August ... causing anger among many.  As one local said "The rail was removed on the understanding that a replacement would be installed, but to date nothing". If one does get put up its going to be rather difficult to police and I am sure that before long new padlocks will start appearing. Perhaps we can come up with an alternative site and pass that suggestion onto the Town Hall.... so any guesses as to how much it would be worth?

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