Horse-drawn carriages have a license to operate in Malaga until 2035, although the City Council's objective is to abolish the service "as soon as possible", so it has started talks with the group to try to reach an economic agreement to put an end to this controversial activity aimed at tourism.

In an interview with EFE, the Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, says that the council has started contacts with the twenty carriage owners who work in the city "so that they can see the convenience" of the service being extinguished sooner rather than later. The current licenses expire in 2035, since in 2015 the horse-drawn carriage ordinance was approved, which establishes a maximum validity of twenty years for these permits.

The mayor recalls that, in parallel with the publication of this regulation, a license rescue plan was started, which has allowed the number of licenses to go from 55 in 2015 to 25 currently, through the payment of financial compensation to their holders. The average price per rescue has been 35,000 euros and the last one was made in 2020, municipal sources have indicated. So far, the City Council has paid just over one million euros for the liquidation of these licenses.

Although the coachmen see the money offered to their colleagues years ago as insufficient, they recognize the progress of the negotiations with the council and some even see it as feasible to reach an agreement in the coming weeks: "Next month there may be no horse-drawn carriages in Malaga," one of the professionals told EFE.