Huercal Overa swimming pool to be open in November

    Luis Garcia Collado, the town's mayor, has announced that the new indoor swimming pool currently under construction in Huercal Overa will be inaugurated after the town's fair in October. The swimming pool project includes the first public spa centre in Andalucia.

    The mayor expressed his satisfaction with the project adding that it was not only a municipal pool but four pools plus the spa area with hot baths, Turkish baths and sauna. The four pools will include one 25m by 12.5m pool and one 7.75m. by 12.5m. The total cost should be around 7.6 million euros.

New school in Turre ready for September

    The school which will replace The Maria Cacho Castril school in the Calle Rosaleda. Work has been completed on the two buildings which will make up the new school, located in the Barranco Negro to the south of the town, with only the access roads needing completion now. The new installations are much needed in the town as many of the town's children have been receiving classes in portacabins.

    The school has taken two years since its approval by the Junta and has cost more than three million euros. It consists of two buildings, one for children up to the age of six and the other is the site of both the primary and secondary schools, and has a capacity of about 580 children almost double the capacity of the previous school.

    The facilities that the children of Turre will be using when they go back to school after the summer holidays include; a multi-use workshop, a music room, a library, a gymnasium and changing rooms, a laboratory workshop and a computer room. The teaching facilities have a total area of more than 2,000 square metres. The school also boasts over 8,500 square metres of grounds, including playgrounds, sporting facilities and green areas.

Mayoress of Mojacar discusses POTALA with residents

    Rosa Mari Cano, the mayoress of Mojacar, along with Angel Medina and Diego Garcia, both councillors on the Mojacar Ayuntamiento, attended a meeting with the Parata Owners Association to discuss the POTALA; Plan de Ordenacion del Territorio del Area de Levante Almeriense (Territorial Planning for the Almerian Levante Area). The POTALA is basically the plan for urban, industrial and infrastructure development in the Levante area for the next ten years, organising a projected investment of some 1,000 million euros.

    Mojacar was the only of the eleven ayuntamientos affected by the plan to vote against the it when it was recently approved by a majority vote by the local town halls, with Antas abstaining. The mayoress explained to the meeting that the Mojacar ayuntamiento's principal objection was the haste and authoritarian attitude with which the plan has been pushed through. The ayuntamiento is also unhappy with the restrictions on areas that can be built on, one example is the increase of the marine protection zone to 200 metres, which will restrict Mojacar's growth, although not everyone at the meeting was unhappy with seeing more of Mojacar protected against construction. There were also proposals from the ayuntamiento that have not been accepted in the plan such as a congress hall in the municipality, this is now going to be built in Garrucha, or a marina near the Macenas beach.

    One opinion aired in the meeting was the fact that Mojacar have been trying to draw up a development plan for the town for the last ten years but with no positive results, it being no surprise then that the regional government should take matters into their hands as the towns in the area seem incapable of doing the planning they should have taken responsibility for.

Wind energy soars in Spain

    The results of a study by business analists DBK which have just been released show that the use of renewable energy resources is increasing rapidly here in Spain. The energy generated from wind in 2007 rose to 13.8 Megawatts, with a projected increase to15.9 MW by the end of the year. The power generated from solar energy in 2007 totalled 623 MW, with a projection of 1,200 MW, an almost 100 per cent increase, by the end of this year. A town of ten thousand people needs around 6.5 MW.

     At the end of 2007 there were 574 wind farms in Spain and the number of solar generation installations has risen form just five at the end of the last decade to 19 thousand at the end of last year meaning the governments objectives for power generated from the sun by 2010 have already been reached.

    Power generation from renewable sources formed a little over ten per cent of the electricity sold in Spain in 2007. Wind generated electricity sales were worth 2.100 million euros and those from solar energy came to 209 million euros, four times the amount made the previous year and the projection for 2008 rises to 470 million euros.

Aguilon Golf has green light

    The Aguilon golf course near San Juan de los Terreros is open and operating with all necessary permissions and licences. This new attraction in the municipality of Pulpi has been created with its integration into the surrounding landscape as one of its primary goals.

    This unique golf course nestles in the foothills of the Aguilon Mountains and the course actually incorporates a couple of little peaks into its design. It is a spectacular setting with the mountainous backdrop and views down to the Pulpi bay. The course is a par 70 and has more than a hundred bunkers, six big lakes and a number of natural ravines that make playing there an unforgettable experience. It can be reached off the AP- 7 toll road or from the Garrucha – Villaricos – San Juan coast road.

    In July two green fees and a buggy will cost you only 80 euros or 90 euros with paella in the clubhouse, there is also a twilight special from 12 to 4 which includes two green fees, a buggy and two drinks for 70 euros. Two green fees and a buggy will cost 85 euros in August, membership is also currently available. Aguilon Golf is part of the Aymerich group of golf clubs which has over twenty golf clubs all over Spain

Guinness book coming to see World’s biggest gazpacho

    To celebrate its fiestas Campohermoso and the Nijar ayuntamiento have organised the making of the world's largest gazpacho on Saturday August 2. The current record stands at 3,000 litres but Campohermoso is planning to make 5,000 litres. The recipe is simple

 

3,600 kg of tomatoes

700 kg of cucumber

400 kg of onion

400 kg of red pepper

400 kg of green pepper

50 kg of garlic

25 kg of salt

200 litres of oil

70 litres of vinegar

 

The record attempt takes place in the Plaza de Andalucia in Campohermoso, Nijar. One hundred women in the town have volunteered to make the gazpacho although the organisers say they hope that more people will lend a hand. Fifteen industrial blenders will be set up in the plaza along with a glass tank to hold the gazpacho when it's made.

    The event is an opportunity for local producers to promote their organic production as all of the ingredients supplied from the Nijar area are organic, produced following strict guidelines on pesticide and fertiliser use, the majority cultivated for export to the UK and Northern Europe.

    The event starts early Saturday morning and the Guiness book of records representatives will be declaring the record accomplished or not at 2.25 that afternoon. All are invited to come and try the gazpacho and there is live music from 4p.m. on.

More buses in Mojacar during summer

    The Mojacar bus service which goes from the Hotel Indalo, along the beach road, up to the Pueblo and back down and along the beach to Marina de la Torre has an extended timetable for summer. The buses will now run every half hour except at siesta time when they will still be every hour. Generally the times are; Hotel Indalo: 25 past and five to the hour, Parque Comercial: 10 past and 25 to the hour, Pueblo: quarter past and quarter to the hour, Marina Torre Playa: on the hour and half past.

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.