The latest figures released by the Spanish Ministry of Housing for the second quarter of 2008 show that property prices are continuing to rise in the province compared to a slight decrease in Spain in general. The general index of property prices marked a 2.8 per cent increase over the first three months of the year in Almeria while nationally the index showed a 0.1 per cent drop. The average price of freehold property in the province is now 1,730 euros per square metre. The last year has seen an increase of property prices in the province of 6.8%, well above the annual inflation rate.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Junta warns of climate change impact in Andalucia
The Junta de Andalucia environment ministry has warned of the negative impacts that predicted climate change will have on tourism in the region in the future.
Tourism accounts for eleven per cent of the region's gross income and is dependent on the weather. According to data published by the Junta inland areas of the region will see an average temperature rise of 4 degrees centigrade by the year 2050 with an increase of up to 8 degrees in some areas. The coastal areas will see an increase of up to twenty per cent in rainfall in the same period, with around three per cent more in inland areas, although this increase will be offset by more evaporation due to the heat and the net effect will be less water in the region with some rivers which now have water all year round becoming seasonal or maybe even drying up completely in the future and the resulting water shortages at times when demand is highest. Sea levels will rise by 15 to 20 centimetres on the Mediterranean coast and by 5 to 10 cm on the Atlantic coast, with the coastline receding by 7 to 12 metres as a result. It is predicted that as a result of the increase in heat waves and the loss of beaches, Spanish tourists will opt for holidays in the North of Spain and European tourists will stay in their own countries.
The United Nations includes local beaches in MAP
The coast from Pulpi to Cabo de Gata has been included by the United Nations in its Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) as the fourteenth Coastal Area Management Project (CAMP). This area has been designated as a CAMP after a feasibility study revealed the weakness of the co-ordination mechanisms between the different policies affecting the coastal resources, the lack of effective social participation in the coastal-related decision-making processes, and the difficulty of implementing a sustainable management of the coastal areas due to the spreading of the administrative responsibilities.
The main objectives of the MAP are; to bring about a massive reduction in pollution from land-based sources, to protect marine and coastal habitats and threatened species, to make maritime activities safer and more conscious of the Mediterranean marine environment, to intensify integrated planning of coastal areas, to monitor the spreading of invasive species and to further promote sustainable development in the Mediterranean region.
The CAMP Levante de Almeria project area covers over 219,000 hectares of the South Eastern area of the Almeria Province. Of that total, 71,000 hectares correspond to the marine area, and 148,122 hectares is terrestrial, which includes the following eight municipalities: Pulpi, Cuevas de Almanzora, Vera, Garrucha, Mojacar, Carboneras, Nijar and Almeria. The limits of the CAMP Levante de Almeria action area will be considered as flexible, considering the convenience of including some adjoining non-coastal municipalities in the resolution of certain issues that influence some aspects of the management of the coastal area (i.e. management of the river basins, pollution, fishing or the urban planning and economic dynamics).
Although the local Spanish press are hailing this as a success story for the area it is in fact an indictment from the international community of the area's failure to manage itself in a responsible and sustainable manner. The project will be coordinated from the University of Almeria.
Whatever you do don’t call them doughnuts
The Spanish company Panrico has won a court case in Barcelona where it has been deemed to have the exclusive rights of the commercial use of the words 'donut', 'donuts' and 'doughnuts' ere in Spain, and even the use of similar words in marketing by other companies is prohibited. The ruling was made in a case brought by the company Europastry, who were appealing against an earlier decision against them. Panrico stated that their 'Donuts' brand has been sold here in Spain for the last forty years and first registered the donut brand in 1962, the company had sales of around 600 million euros in 2007.
Europastry have had to pay 34,000 euros in damages and a spokesman for the company sated that the company was still happy with the sales of its new brand 'Dots', which has seen a growth in market share of 20 per cent and added that they had registered the name 'Minidots' with the Spanish patents and brand names registry.
Two injured in Villaricos boat accident
Two of the occupants of a semi-inflatable boat were injured when its motor exploded. The accident happened at about 10 a.m. in the sea some 200 metres out of the Villaricos marina. The occupants of the boat were rescued by bathers and other boats in the area and the boat was recovered by the Salvamento Maritimo lifeboat.
Arboleas is most ‘British’ town
Figures have recently been released showing the number of foreigners living in Spanish municipalities. A report, drawn up by the Caja España bank, collates all the national, regional, provincial and municipal data collected by different government agencies in 2007. The official population of Spain last year was just over 45 million of which ten per cent were foreigners, seven per cent of whom are immigrants from the U.K., a surprisingly low total of 315,000 English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish, considering the millions here in Spain we hear about in the British press. The majority of foreigners living in Spain are from South America, with 1.5 million here followed by half a million Romanians.
The majority of the British living here in Spain are to found in the province of Alicante where they make up six percent of the 1.8 million population. The proportion in Malaga is lower, with 3.75 percent of the 1.5 million population being British. Here in Almeria 2.4 percent of the total 650,000 are Brits.
Locally Arboleas stands out, as half of its 4,000 inhabitants are Brits, something to be taken into account in the next municipal elections. The next highest proportion is to be found in Partaloa with 48% of its 750 population. And consecutively: Bedar; 38% of 910 inhabitants, Los Gallardos; 36% of 3400 inhabitants, Mojacar; 34% of 6,500 inhabitants, Zurgena; 21% of 2,700 inhabitants, Turre; 20% of 3,250 inhabitants, Albox; 7.6% of 11,000 inhabitants, Vera; 6.6% of 12,000 inhabitants, Huercal Overa; 3% of 16,000 inhabitants and Cuevas del Almanzora 4.7% of 11,500 inhabitants.
All of these figures reflect those registered at the local councils, that is those on the 'Padron'. These are the figures used to calculate the money each town receives from the regional government, the number of police, school provision and generally the services provided by the council. They are certainly not a completely accurate reflection of the numbers actually living in many of these towns. It is in the best interests of all those living here in Spain to register on the Padron of the town where they live.
Almeria’s intensive cultivation ‘good for the planet’
Almeria University has presented a special summer course entitled 'Favourable Impacts of High Yield Intensive Horticulture' in the municipality of El Ejido, an area renowned for its huge number of greenhouses growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other crops all year round.
Not only do these greenhouses have a significant economic importance for the region but, according to Professor Francisco Camacho of the University of Almeria, they have a positive environmental impact both locally and globally.
Locally greenhouse cultivation helps prevent erosion and desertification due to their plastic covering stopping heavy rains from eroding the surface. The systems of irrigation used allow a significant saving of water compared to more conventional techniques and the application of organic fertiliser increases the soil's fertility.
At a global level cultivation in El Ejido area absorbs more carbon dioxide, the most prolific greenhouse gas, than it emits. This is the result of a policy of composting all the organic waste produced into organic fertiliser. The compost produced in the area is used by organic farmers in many parts of southern Spain.
Another interesting contribution to the battle against global warming, albeit on a relatively local level, is the 'mirror effect' the greenhouses cause. As a result of the sunlight reflected away from the Earth by the plastic the average temperature of the area around El Ejido has dropped by 0.3 degrees centigrade in the last 25 years compared to a rise of 0.7 degrees in the world and a rise of 1.5 degrees in the Iberian Peninsula in the same period.
Mojacar makes camping illegal outside designated areas
A byelaw passed by the ayuntamiento of Mojacar and which recently came into effect makes it illegal to camp overnight, whether in tents, caravans or camper vans, or even people wanting to sleep in their cars, in any area that is not an officially designated campsite. The fine for anyone found breaking the byelaw is from 60 to 100 euros with the maximum reserved for anyone causing damage to street furniture or leaving the area they had been camped in dirty. Camper vans have been a common sight parked overnight in car parks next to the beach or even on the beach in areas further from the main built up zones. The fines can be given by both local police and Guardia Civil and they have a last resort the possibility of the use of the council tow truck to remove caravans and camper vans.
Teenager killed in road accident
A fifteen year old boy was killed when the moped he was riding was involved in a head on collision with a car. The accident happened in the San Francisco area of Huercal Overa on the A-350 road at about 4p.m. The 112 emergency services said in a statement that the boy died almost instantaneously. The causes of the accident are still unknown.
‘Pneumatic’ rubbish collection in Huercal Overa
The Huercal Overa ayuntamiento has put out to tender the realisation of a directive plan for a new rubbish collection system in the town. The new system will involve the use of compressed air to transport rubbish to a central collection depot. Residents of the town will put their rubbish into 'bins' installed in the streets, but these bins are in fact tubes which carry the rubbish, at speeds of up to seventy kilometres an hour to the central depot. The benefits of the system are the elimination of rubbish containers and collection lorries from the streets, reducing traffic congestion, smells and other inconveniences these cause.
The directive plan, which has a budget of 150,000 euros will include a study for the implementation of the system in the town, the building project for the central collection depot and the new byelaws which will be necessary for the systems implementation. A similar system operates in Almeria capital.
28 arrested in Roquetas for lottery con
IN the fourth phase of 'Operation Nile', in which 70 agents of various national and international law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have participated, eleven houses were searched and 28 Nigerians were arrested in Roquetas de Mar. Those arrested are presumed members of five different organised groups dedicated to conning money from people by sending them letters telling them that they had won money on the lottery, but to receive their winnings first the victims had to pay for the transmission of the prize money. The police found during the searches: 1,200 letters, ready to be sent, lists of names and addresses of people living outside Spain and templates of letters with the logotypes and letterheads of official organisations, for use in word processing programmes.
The police estimate that the groups involved in this fraud are responsible for sending 1.2 million letters a year from which they have obtained more than a million euros.
Operation Nile has resulted in the arrest of a total of 219 people in Madrid, Malaga and Valencia of whom 127 are now in prison and 25 have been expelled to Nigeria. They have been accused of a total of 562 cases of fraud for a total of about 10 million euros. The majority of victims of this type of confidence trick never go to the police.
Huercal Overa’s emblematic tower to be renovated
The tower that overlooks Huercal Overa and which has become a symbol of the town is to be restored. The money for its restoration is to come principally from a fund set aside by Spain's Ministry of FOMENTO, this fund comprises one per cent of the ministry's total budget and is dedicated to the restoration of Spain's historical heritage. The ministry is to provide 75% of the cost of the works, almost 480,000 euros, with the other 160,000 coming from the Junta de Andalucia Ministry of Culture. Once the restoration works are completed then work can begin on converting it into a museum.
Garrucha council obliged to honour agreed pay rise
The ayuntamiento of Garrucha has been ordered by a judge to honour a pay rise approved by the previous council over a year ago, the ayuntamiento has five days to appeal against the decision.
In the last town hall elections in May 2007 the Partido Popular (PP) beat the socialist party (PSOE) by seven seats to six in Garrucha. In a council meeting held in the days before the elections the socialist ayuntamiento approved a motion to award a pay rise of some 350 euros a month to its manual workers, backdated to January 2007 and to come into effect in June the same year. The new PP council refused to honour the pay rise claiming that irregularities were committed in its approval as this was done without reports from the council secretary or auditor. The judge ruled that according to law the lack of these reports did not affect the legitimacy of the agreement with the workers. Another argument of the ayuntamiento was that there was an illegal clause in the agreement referring to compulsory retirement, again the judge did not agree with the council's lawyer stating that one illegal clause did not nullify the entire agreement, adding that the council should take steps to rectify that specific clause.
The judges decision means that the ayuntamiento will have to pay each of the fifteen workers affected around 6,300 euros in back pay, a total of more than ninety thousand euros.
Seven men arrested with 3.4 tonnes of hashish
Guardia Civil and local police from Adra were involved in the arrest of seven men and the confiscation of 3,370 kilogrammes of hashish in the municipality of Adra near Almeria capital. The men were spotted by a routine Guardia Civil patrol at about 2.30 in the afternoon unloading bales of hashish from a fishing boat onto a lorry waiting with its engine running. When the men realised they had been spotted they tried to escape, with the Guardia Civil arresting at that moment the driver of the lorry and another two men who boarded the boat but were unable to escape as the boat was grounded on the beach. The other men were found hiding in the surrounding area after an exhaustive search of the area by agents from the Guardia Civil and the local police. The lorry used was later found to have been stolen last April in EL Ejido. He men have been remanded in custody awaiting trial.
Works approved for Garrucha town hall
The ayuntamiento of Garrucha has approved the works to be carried out on the town hall. The ayuntamiento building's basic structure and facade date from 1875 with a rebuild conserving these elements in 1991. The new works involve improving access, refurbishment of the offices, the installation of a lift and the 'adaptation' of the facade. The total cost of the works come two half a million euros, 350,000 will come from the Junta de Andalucia and the other 150,000 will be paid by the ayuntamiento.
In the same meeting the ayuntamiento approved the announcement of a contest to choose a design for the remodelling of Plaza de Pedro Gea, the plaza the ayuntamiento building looks out onto and which was dug up for the construction of an underground car park, yet to be opened. The contest will award 10,000 euros to the winner with six and four thousand for the second and third placed.
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