Nueva Andalucía opens a new cleaning base to reduce travel times and strengthen daily services

Nueva Andalucía has had a new piece of infrastructure since September aimed at improving one of the municipal services that residents notice most in their daily lives: the cleaning of streets and public spaces.

Marbella Town Hall has completed the construction of a local operations centre for the Cleaning Department, a small working base located in the underground car park of the district’s Multi-Purpose Centre.

Although the facility is relatively modest in size — around 80 square metres — its main value lies precisely in where it has been built.

Until now, workers assigned to different parts of Nueva Andalucía could need to travel to other municipal facilities to collect equipment, change clothes or carry out certain tasks linked to their working day.

With a base located inside the district itself, those journeys can be reduced and a greater proportion of working time can be spent directly on cleaning the area.

80 square metres designed for everyday work

The new facility is mainly divided into two areas.

Around 60 square metres are used for storage, while the remaining 20 square metres are dedicated to toilets and changing facilities.

The centre includes two showers, two washbasins and two toilets, giving employees working in Nueva Andalucía a closer place to start or finish their shift, or carry out certain tasks during the working day.

A workstation with a data connection has also been installed, allowing administrative and coordination duties to be handled from within the base itself.

The project also required the space to be fully adapted for its new purpose.

The work included new water supply and drainage systems, upgrades to the electrical installation and lighting, as well as the installation of a forced ventilation system.

The objective: less time spent travelling

One of the main arguments behind creating this type of facility is straightforward: Marbella is a geographically large municipality.

From Las Chapas to San Pedro Alcántara, the urban area stretches across many kilometres, with neighbourhoods and districts that have very different needs.

Nueva Andalucía is also one of the municipality’s largest and busiest areas.

Residential developments, shopping areas, schools, sports facilities and locations close to Puerto Banús all generate daily cleaning and maintenance requirements.

When the teams responsible for these areas have to travel to distant facilities to collect equipment or use essential services, part of the working day is lost in transit.

The new centre is designed to operate as a local logistics base, bringing equipment and essential facilities closer to the place where the work is actually carried out.

What changes for Cleaning Department workers?

The most immediate impact will be felt by the municipal employees themselves.

Having changing rooms, showers, toilets and storage space within Nueva Andalucía creates a more local and practical working structure.

This may be particularly useful on high-activity days or during the hottest months of the year, when having suitable facilities close to the work area can improve working conditions.

At the same time, keeping certain resources within the district should make it easier to organise tasks and respond more quickly to specific needs.

The overall aim is to reduce internal travel associated with preparing for the working day and allow more time to be focused on streets, squares and public spaces.

Nueva Andalucía, a district with its own specific needs

The location of the new centre is no coincidence.

Nueva Andalucía is one of Marbella’s major residential and tourist hubs.

The district stretches from areas close to Puerto Banús inland towards numerous residential developments, with a high concentration of homes, hospitality businesses and services.

Marbella’s actual population also varies significantly throughout the year.

During periods of high tourist occupancy, more people use the municipality’s streets, restaurants, shops and services, which also increases waste generation and cleaning requirements.

Distributing resources directly across different districts makes it easier for municipal teams to adapt their daily operations to that reality.

Marbella expands a network of smaller cleaning bases across the municipality

The Nueva Andalucía facility is not an isolated project.

It forms part of a wider model aimed at gradually decentralising the Cleaning Department’s infrastructure through the creation of several local operational bases.

Marbella already has similar centres completed in Santa Marta and Parque de la Constitución.

Another facility is also being developed in Calle Magallanes, designed to support employees working in the Puya and Albarizas areas.

The idea is to create a network of smaller facilities strategically distributed across the municipality instead of concentrating all resources in a single location.

This allows each team to have a base closer to the area it is responsible for.

A small facility with an everyday impact

Unlike a major public works project, an 80-square-metre centre is unlikely to transform the appearance of a neighbourhood on its own.

Its impact is measured differently.

If it reduces several daily journeys, makes equipment easier to store and provides better facilities for employees, the benefits may gradually become visible in the organisation of the service.

That is precisely the purpose of these local work centres.

They are not designed as public-facing buildings or major municipal facilities, but as small pieces of internal infrastructure that bring public services closer to the areas where they are delivered.

In a geographically extensive city such as Marbella, that distribution can become an important tool for improving the use of resources.

Street cleaning is one of the services that most affects the image of a tourist destination

The project also has particular relevance in a municipality heavily dependent on tourism.

Urban cleanliness is one of the public services with the greatest direct impact on how residents and visitors perceive a city.

Bins, streets, squares, waste containers and public spaces all form part of the everyday experience of anyone who lives in Marbella or spends a few days there.

In residential areas such as Nueva Andalucía, where permanent residents, second-home owners and international visitors all coexist, maintaining a rapid response throughout the year is especially important.

The new base does not reduce the number of streets that need to be cleaned, nor does it eliminate the district’s requirements on its own.

What it does aim to achieve is to ensure that the employees responsible for that work have their resources closer at hand.

A new element within Nueva Andalucía’s daily services

With construction now complete, the Multi-Purpose Centre gains an additional function beneath its existing facilities.

The approximately 80 square metres created in its underground car park will now become a new operational point for some of the Cleaning Department teams working daily across Nueva Andalucía.

The reasoning behind the project is fairly simple: if employees have to travel fewer kilometres to access equipment, changing facilities and basic services, they can spend a greater proportion of their working day in the areas where their work is actually needed.

It may appear to be a small change, but in services that operate every day of the year, accumulated minutes and journeys can make a significant difference.

Details of the new centre, its layout and Marbella’s wider plan for local Cleaning Department bases can be found in the official information published by Marbella Town Hall.