Madrid: Protests against a planned main street redevelopment in the normally tranquil Spanish city of Burgos have boiled over into riots, with residents rallying in the streets for a fifth day on Tuesday.
Police have arrested 40 people since the nightly demonstrations began on Friday, as protesters burned garbage containers, smashed windows and tore down security barriers.
Opponents of the street revamp say it is a waste of money that could be better spent on social services during an economic downturn that has left one in four people in Spain out of work.
Dozens of people gathered from this morning in the centre of the northern city to try to block work on the redesign, which has a price tag of USD 11 million and will reduce free parking spaces.
A bigger mass rally was planned for tonight.
"Nobody wants this project. What people here are demanding are public daycare places," Francisco Cabrerizo, the spokesman for the Neighbourhood Association of Eras de Gamonal, where the street is located, said.
The plans for Calle Vitoria include reducing the lanes of traffic to just one each way instead of two, adding a bike lane and green spaces and replacing free parking spaces with a paid underground car park.
Burgos mayor Javier Lacalle argues the project will improve the quality of life of the 170,000 residents of the city, known for its dark-stone old town and castle and a statue of the medieval adventurer El Cid.
Cabrerizo said the project will not build enough underground parking places to replace the ones that will be removed and that the new spaces will be sold for nearly 20,000 euros.
"Obviously the street will be very pretty. But the adjacent streets will not be able to support all the traffic," he added. "It will be chaos."
