Couple convicted for extorting Arboleas Brits

    A married couple has been convicted to four years in prison by the Almeria provincial court for extorting money and the ownership of a car from a British man living in Arboleas. The couple, aged 41 and 46, are members of a gypsy clan known as 'Los Pertolos' which according to the court is well known for its violence.

    The couple threatened the British man, who ran an estate agent's in the Arboleas area, showing him a pistol they told him had "already been used to kill a person" and telling him at the same time that they could "become enemies". Later they then went on to the man's home where other unidentified members of the clan surrounded him and forced him to sign a contract giving work to the accused. He was also forced to give them a document which they used to transfer ownership of his son's car to the accused. The car was later returned to the victim by the guardia civil.

Arrests in Huercal Overa for selling fake designer clothes

    Four men were arrested in Huercal Overa after the weekly Monday market for selling counterfeit designer products. Their stalls caught the attention of plain clothes guardia civil officers patrolling the market because of the number of people congregating around them and on closer inspection the officers saw that the two stalls were selling clothes and accessories with well known designer labels. The products being sold were identical to well known designer products with the design and patterns, the exterior and interior labels and the logotypes all being identical to famous brands, although on close inspection the quality could be seen to be inferior.

    Due to the number of people around the stalls the guardia civil decided to wait until the market finished before proceeding to arrest the four men, identified as Malick D. N. aged 42, Abdou C., aged 30, Mbaye D., aged 45 and Moth L. aged 43, when they were loading their vehicles. A total of 1,500 fake items were confiscated, including jeans, polo shirts, football shirts, sunglasses and purses. The guardia civil estimated the value of the confiscated merchandise to come to almost 120,000 euros.

Airport sees numbers drop, seaport sees increase

    The airport in Almeria has seen a reduction in the number of passengers passing through it compared to 2007. During the first six months of this year 540,386 passengers used the airport, a reduction of 7.8 per cent on the same period last year. Almeria airport is the twenty fifth busiest in Spain and the reduction in travellers is the fourth greatest after the airports of Leon, Vitoria and Madrid-Cuatro Vientos. This reduction is due mainly to the 16.7 per cent drop in passenger numbers in June relative to June last year.

    The sea port in Almeria has seen an increase in passenger numbers travelling between Spain and North Africa, with a 6.07% increase to 227,300 in the first six months of the year form 214,300 in the same period in 2007.

 

Girl dies in Los Gallardos car crash

    A seven year old girl died in an accident when the car she was travelling in left the road at around 5 a.m. According to the emergency services the accident happened only two hundred metres from the home of the family. The two adults in the car suffered only minor injuries.

    The car came off the N340 road near Alfaix on a curve for reasons that are as yet unknown, a witness called the local guardia civil and the girl was taken to the Sorbas medical centre which called 061 for an ambulance with intensive care equipment when they realised how seriously hurt she was. The ambulance arrived and took her to Torrecardenas hospital in Almeria capital but the girl died before arriving at the hospital. No other cars were involved in the accident.

Albox multi-use building to open at last

    The ayuntamiento of Albox has announced that the 'Edificio de Usos Mutiples' (multiple use building) that was started thirteen years ago will be inaugurated in September. The building is destined for use as a theatre, concert hall, meeting hall and generally any cultural or leisure activity that the town's residents organise.

    There have been several improvements on the original plans, including the design of a seating area and the installation of sound and light systems. Problems with corrosion in the existing metallic structure have also been solved. The completion of the building has needed an extra 400,000 euros on top of the original budget, for which the ayuntamiento has had to request a loan.

Cajamar makes 62 million euros in six months

    Cajamar has published data on its performance in the first six months of 2008 showing that the savings and credit cooperative doesn't seem to be suffering as a result of the economic slowdown. In the first half of the year they showed a balance of 24,500 million euros, a figure which gives a year on year growth of 17.8 per cent. After discounting the 5 million euro contribution to the Cajamar Foundation, a non profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of social economy and technological research and investigation, and different obligatory and voluntary provisions, including an extra provision of about 25 million to offset potential loan losses, their net result for the semester comes to 62 million euros, 12.5 per cent more than the previous year.

    The total amount of loans, including mortgages and loans to small and medium sized businesses, rose to 23,913 million euros, an increase of 17.1 per cent on the same time last year. The percentage of bad loans rose by 0.71 percent to 1.8 percent although this figure is still below the sector average. Customer capital managed by the bank rose 10 per cent to 15,712 million euros mostly due to an increase in customer deposits especially in fixed term deposits.

    

POTALA – A plan for the next ten tears

    The POTALA is the Plan de Ordenacion del Territorio del Area de Levante Almeriense (Territorial Planning for the Almerian Levante Area). It includes plans for all infrastructures (transport, water, electricity and gas), urban planning and economic development in the area stretching from Carboneras in the South to San Juan de los Terreros in the North-East and Santa Maria de Nieva and the surrounding mountains in the North-West. The area includes the municipalities of; Antas, Bedar, Carboneras, Cuevas del Almanzora, Garrucha, Huercal-Overa, Los Gallardos, Mojacar, Pulpi, Turre and Vera. The plan affects a population of almost 78 thousand people and the total area included in the plan comes to just over 426 square miles (the same area as Hong Kong) and has 23 miles of beaches.

    The plan is now in its final stages after having been approved by a majority vote from the ayuntamientos affected by it with the exceptions of Mojacar which voted against it and Antas which abstained. The reason for their dissension was that both towns wanted more of the land which is currently protected against development to be freed from urban restrictions.

    The plan projects an investment in the area over the next ten years of a thousand million euros, seventy per cent of which will come from public funds and the other thirty from private investors.

 

Transport

    The POTLA integrates all of the plans for new roads, road improvements and rail connections for the next ten years. The most important investment in the area will be the AVE high speed train with a station planned in the Vera Playa area. The AVE will cut the journey time from Madrid down from five and a half hours to two and a half hours, making a relaxing weekend at the beach here a definite possibility for residents of the capital.

    There are several new roads anticipated with bypasses for Turre, Carboneras, Pulpi and Santa Maria de las Nievas. There is also a new road behind Mojacar from the roundabout by the Cepsa petrol station to the end of Mojacar Playa, another coming directly from the A7 motorway to Garrucha and another connecting the Los Lobos exit on the new Aguilas motorway to the back of Mojacar. Major improvements are also planned for many other roads in the area.

 

Water, Electricity and Gas

    The plan foresees the zones needs for water and energy, with water to come from the Carboneras desalination plant, electricity principally from the Carboneras power station with new power lines and sub-stations planned in strategic areas, and gas from the gas line being laid from Almeria to Algeria.

 

Urban Planning

    The POTLA in theory will regulate the planning confusion that has reigned in the area over the last couple of years, defining the areas which are to be provided with street level infrastructure and made 'urbanisable' land, with large areas specified in Vera, San Juan de los Terreros and Sierra Cabrera. The plan leaves the power for legalising those properties currently illegal or unregulated in the hands of the ayuntamientos, meaning that only those in precarious situations such as in ramblas or near reservoirs will have problems with legalisation. Of the approximately six thousand illegal properties in the area it is estimated that only about a hundred will remain that way.

 

Economic Development

    Perhaps the most far reaching part of the POTLA is the designation of special areas for the production and tourism industries. There are four areas reserved for production industry the largest of which surrounds the intersection of the A7 Almeria-Murcia motorway and the AP-7 Cartagena motorway, there is another slightly smaller one on the intersection between the A7 and the new motorway to Purchena and another between Pulpi and the AP-7 toll motorway. The fourth area is reserved for heavy industry and is behind the Carboneras power station.

     The other area which will be the heart of the tourist industry in the Almerian Levante is the Llano Central, an area of over 13,000 acres which is for the development of tourist attractions in the area. The area is in the centre of, and includes land in, the municipalities of Antas, Bedar, Garrucha, Los Gallardos, Mojacar, Turre and Vera, and a project with detailed ideas for its use is being drawn up at a cost of 60,000 euros.

 

The POTLA is a detailed and exhaustive plan which can be found on the internet and downloaded in zip format from the following link.

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/obraspublicasytransportes/www/estaticas/ordenacion_territorio/levante_almeria/levante_almeria.zip

Fiestas del Virgen del Carmen

July 16 is the day of the Virgen del Carmen, the patron saint of all sea goers and especially loved by fishermen. It is a day celebrated in hundreds of towns up and down the coast of Spain, with celebrations in this area in Garrucha, Villaricos, San Juan (in Pulpi and in Cabo de Gata) and Carboneras. The tradition involves taking the Virgin from the church or hermitage where She is kept and carrying Her through the streets accompanied by a band and often by the fishermen's wives in traditional costumes, floral tributes are usually made to the effigy. The procession takes Her down to the local port where She is put aboard one of the fishing boats and taken out to sea again accompanied but this time by the fishing fleet and almost anything that can be sailed out of the harbour. This is all done in the best fiesta style with plenty of bonhomie and alcohol. There is a darker side as alcohol and water don't mix too well and it is not unusual to hear of someone falling overboard and drowning during the festivities.

    The history of the Virgen del Carmen can be traced back to the old testament which tells of the prophet Elias retreating to Mount Carmelo (from which comes Carmen) in modern day Israel where he had a vision of a cloud rising from the sea, later interpreted to be a manifestation of the Virgin Mary. From there comes one connection with sea farers. A connection can also be found in the fact that the Virgen del Carmen is known as the 'Estrella del Mar' (star of the sea) harking back to the days before GPS when mariners navigated by the stars.

Worst watermelon harvest for 25 years

This year has been a terrible year for watermelon farmers with fifty per cent less reaching the market than last year. The reason for this decline has been due to a lack of water in many areas, the high salt content of the irrigation water and the transport strike in June. The lack of water and poor quality of what there is has resulted in the watermelons cultivated not reaching a suitable size for the market meaning that many haven't even been picked, being left in the fields to rot or be eaten by goats and sheep. As if this weren't enough the transport strike came at a time of peak production, affecting 20 per cent of the watermelon production in the Levante area. This also caused a steep drop in the price which has not recovered since then. Producers are now getting 12 to 20 cents a kilo on a product which sells for about one euro a kilo in the supermarkets.

Tourist rescues couple from sea in Mojacar

     A man on holiday in Mojacar rescued a couple who got trapped on rocks at the Playa de Cantal. The Red Cross had raised a red flag to indicate the dangerous state of the sea at the time but there were still people swimming in the sea despite the danger. Raul Alcedo Olea from Malaga saw the couple get into trouble. He said that his attention was caught by the time they were taking to come to the surface so he jumped into the water fully clothed to help them. He was helped by several people to pull the woman out of the water but the man went under again and he had to pull him out by the hair. Raul said that if he had stopped to think he probably wouldn't have jumped in to save them. The Mojacar Red Cross went to the scene straight away and took the man and woman to the emergency services.

Andalucian water ski championship to be held in Cuevas del Almanzora

    During the first weekend of August Cuevas del Alamanzora will host the Andalucian water skiing championship. The championship will be held on the rowing canal built for the Mediterranean games in 2005. The competition itself will be held on the Saturday with the Thursday and Friday being dedicated to allowing any visitor who wants to try water skiing to do so free of charge.

    The cuevas councillor for sports, Paqui Rodriguez expressed her satisfaction that the rowing canal is being used for another important event as this has always been the policy of the ayuntamiento.

    In January this year there was an 'open doors' event which attracted more than seven hundred people and gave them the opportunity to take part in activities in the water and on land. There have also been regattas and there is a club which uses the canal for training at weekends.

San Juan de los Terreros to host bands festival

    The beach of San Juan de los Terreros is the stage for the XV Festival Provincial de Bandas de Música, with 2,600 musicians participating in 53 bands. The bands will be playing from Thursday to Sunday during the last two weeks of July.

    The bands are not pop bands but municipal bands of the type that accompany the virgin in processions at Easter or this week during the Virgen del Carmen fiestas in many fishing towns. This year the bands of Turre and Alcolea are participating for the first time. Almeria has a particularly strong tradition of this kind of band and they are very popular among the young people of the towns and villages of the province.

    The festival starts July 17 and the last day will be July 27.

Plans to build four star hotel in Turre

    The construction company Urbasa is to build a four star hotel in the municipality of Turre. The new hotel which is to cost around 1.75 million euros will have 32 rooms, consisting of four double suites, one junior suite, five single rooms and 22 double rooms. It will have a heated swimming pool, a spa and tennis courts.

    The construction company will start work when it finishes another hotel it is building in the Balearic Islands which is projected to be completed at the end of the year. Special attention has been given in the building project to the environmental impact of the hotel and special measures will be taken to protect the area in which it is to be built. The hotel will be part of the Catalonia chain of hotels.

Seron celebrates its fourteenth ham fair

The mayor of the municipality of Seron, Juan Antonio Lopez, expressed his delight at the fact that for the fourteenth year running the number of people attending the Feria del Jamon had exceeded the attendance the year before. The number of people who enjoyed plates of ham and cured meats (embutidos) at a symbolic price ran into the thousands with coach parties arriving from all over the province and even from places as far as Jaen or Cordoba.

    The ham was served in two sessions the first at one pm and the second starting at nine pm with many retiring to the town's bars after the first to await the second session. After the second session the party continued with a dance and a rock concert for the younger visitors.

    Seron is a town with an ideal climate for naturally curing ham, dry and not too hot which makes the jamon de Seron a staple industry of the area.

National newspaper gives local property a boost

National newspaper gives local property a boost    

    El mundo, one of Spain's most widely read national daily newspapers, has recently given the Garrucha, Mojacar and Vera area a boost in its 'Su Vivienda' (your house) supplement. The supplement recently published a special report on taking advantage of the slump in the property market to buy a place by the beach and included was a list of 'the twenty most attractive destinations to buy a house on the coast'. While this area didn't come first, that privilege went to Marbella still a beautiful place even after all the scandals, it did come in a respectable twelfth place. The main selling point for this area was the AVE, the high speed train, plans for which have now been approved with a stop in Vera Playa. When it is completed Madrid will be a relaxing two and a half hours ride away as opposed to a tiring five and a half hours drive away. Some people say it's no coincidence that the AVE to Vera has been approved by a government led by a president who has just bought a holiday home in ... Vera Playa.