Neighbors form platform to save Silgar balustrade

A seaside railing is not usually front-page material. But in Sanxenxo, the stone balustrade along Praia de Silgar is one of those pieces of town furniture that stopped being just infrastructure a long time ago. It is part of the postcard. That is why a fairly technical public-works project — widening access, smoothing circulation, updating safety features — has turned into a fight about memory, identity, and who gets to decide what a famous promenade should look like. ### What happened this week? On May 5, residents said they had formed a citizens’ platform to defend the stone balustrade of the Silgar promenade. The move came after days of growing backlash over a municipal project tied to new works on the seafront. What had started as criticism from the local BNG opposition widened into a broader neighborhood campaign. ### What exactly is being changed? This is the core of the argument. Critics believed the town hall planned to remove a section of the granite balustrade and replace it with a metal railing. Mayor Telmo Martín pushed back on May 5 and said that was false — his version is that the original stone will stay, and so if you think the stone is being scrapped, it feels like vandalism. If you think it is being reinforced, it feels like maintenance. ### Why does that distinction matter so much? Because Silgar is not just any walkway. It is the signature beach in one of Galicia’s best-known resort towns, and the balustrade is part of the visual identity of the promenade. Residents opposing the plan are treating the stonework as heritage, even if the legal argument here is really about a public-works design rather than a monument-protection file. Basically, they see the metal addition itself as damage — even if the granite stays in place. ### What is the council trying to do? The wider project is about accessibility and mobility on the Paseo de Silgar. Sanxenxo put out works connected to a new stretch of “plataforma única” — a single-level surface meant to improve pedestrian movement and traffic ordering — with a budget reported around €396,850 and an estimated execution period of three months. In that frame, the balustrade issue is one element inside a bigger redesign of how people move along the waterfront. ### Why are opponents still angry if the stone stays? Because preservation fights are often about appearance, not just material survival. Think of it like putting a modern guardrail across a historic staircase — the stone may remain, but the object people recognize has still changed. Opponents also do not seem to trust that “reinforcement” will stay limited once works begin. That trust gap is why the mayor’s denial did not end the row. ### Is this just a neighborhood complaint now? No — it is already becoming organized politics. The BNG called a concentration for May 8 at 19:00 in the Rosa dos Ventos area, saying the local government was pressing ahead despite social rejection. The new citizens’ platform gives that discontent a structure outside party politics, which usually means the issue can last longer than a one-week flare-up. ### What happens next? The practical question is whether the council adjusts the design, slows the works, or simply tries to ride out the protest. The political question is bigger — whether Sanxenxo can modernize a high-profile seafront without looking like it is sanding off the town’s character. That is the real pressure point now. ### Bottom line This is a very local fight, but it is a familiar one. Coastal towns want safer, more accessible promenades. Residents want the place to keep looking like itself. In Silgar, those two goals have collided on 120 meters of stone.