LOCAL news

Nerja
murder:
detention order sent
by post

A search and detain order on a Moroccan accused of a murder in Nerja was distributed by post. Hicham B. allegedly stabbed his former girlfriend to death on the Balcón de Europa on September 28, five days after the order had been issued by a Torrox court.

An earlier search and detain order against Hicham B. issued on September 1 was sent to Nerja’s local police by fax, and the court received a reply a week later stating that he could not be found. It said he was not at his home “and possibly not in Nerja at this time”.

Hicham B. was imprisoned unconditionally by a Torrox court, and ordered to be kept in solitary confinement. Cecilia’s brother, Carlos Coria Olivares, and his family returned to Argentina with her body for a family funeral in her home town of San Juan.

Illegal in Frigiliana?

Violent
theft

The incident saw a 24-year-old employee threatened with a knife and tied up as he prepared to close for business at around 8pm. The masked raider is described as slim, about 1.75 metres tall and wearing black Nike shoes.

No compensation

They say that financial help promised by the province’s department of agriculture and fishing has not materialised. After an estimated €6million of damage was caused, the administration promised compensation but farmers say “not a single euro” has been received.

Algarrobo
reef

The regional government confirmed that the €300,000 project, designed to prevent illegal fishing just off the shoreline, would go ahead. The reef consists of 134 concrete blocks to act as a barrier, plus 75 more designed to encourage fish to reproduce in safety.

Cave celebrations

The working party tasked with managing celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Nerja Caves has met for the first time.

Its members intend to stage at least one event every month during 2009. The Caves at Maro were discovered in January 1959 by some boys searching for bats and are now one of the country’s top tourist attractions.

Bus
to Madrid

The direct coach service between Nerja and Madrid will restart before the end of the year.

The link has not been operating since July. The announcement came from Nerja’s transport councillor Antonio Navas who said that the town hall had mediated in problems which had led to the suspension of the service.

Municipalities to come under
drought decree

Rodríguez Leal, said the proposal would be approved by the Junta in the coming weeks and would guarantee drinking water supplies and irrigation for areas of intensive cultivation and for the maintenance of trees. The provincial environment delegate, Remedios Martel, asked the public for maximum cooperation if and when town halls become obliged to implement limitations on the use of drinking water. These may include a ban on filling swimming pools, irrigation of gardens and golf-courses, street cleaning and car washing. Fines of up to €600,000 can be levied on those who fail to observe the restrictions.

The delegate emphasised that, despite the present situation, such action was not yet planned and urged responsible use of the resource. Sr Leal said that, while the annual volume of water supplied from Lake Viñuela was over 30 cubic hectometres, the reservoir presently only holds 17.2 cubic hectometres. The new drought restrictions would be implemented, he added, when Viñuela has less than six months of drinking water left.

The reservoir was constructed in 1986 and has a capacity of 170 cubic hectometres. In 1995, after a severe drought affecting Málaga, a pipeline was constructed between the city and Viñuela which allows water flow in either direction. However, Málaga’s mayor, Francisco de la Torre, said that it would be “difficult” for water to be sent from the city to the Axarquía.

Site for new health centre agreed?

The regional government has rejected three of the four sites suggested for Nerja’s new health centre. Technicians from the Junta de Andalucía say that only one meets the essential conditions required.

Market row goes on

Down the drain

Nerja and Torrox are the biggest beneficiaries of a series of special grants from the Junta de Andalucía to finance drainage projects in municipalities of between 10,000 and 20,000 residents.

Nerja will get €486,000 while Torrox receives €141,000. Cash also goes to Alhaurín el Grande (€334,000), Álora (€198,000) and Cártama (€181,000).

Mayor Natacha Rivas said that the move would allow the council to retain control of the municipal budget. Other measures, including the optimisation of the use of electricity, would also be implemented to save money

Water privatised

Nerja town council has approved a plan to create a municipal water supply entity.

The vote was not supported by opposition PSOE and IU councillors who claimed there would be “no benefit” and queried the legality of the move. Details of the privatised company, to be known as Aguas de Narixa, will shortly appear in the province’s Official Bulletin.

Undersea
replanting

Bucedores Recreativos want authorisation from the Junta to repopulate three kilometres of seabed, a move already approved by Nerja’s town council. The €400,000 project also includes positioning of an artificial reef to prevent illegal fishing from boats coming too close to the shore.

Aqueduct row between Nerja and Junta

Nerja has blamed the Junta de Andalucía for delays in starting renovation work on the Águila aqueduct near Maro. The comments follow a recent call from the regional government for Nerja to come up with the finance promised for the project.

 

The 40 metre high structure was built in 1880 to ensure adequate water was available for the cultivation of sugar cane but it now needs considerable restoration to ensure its future.   At the end of 2005, the then-owners of the aqueduct, Sociedad Azucarera Larios (Salsa), ceded it to Nerja town hall, and a year later, a deal was struck with the Junta de Andalucía to share equally the cost of the required work. This committed the town hall to expenditure of almost €500,000 on the structure which is one of the Junta’s sites of cultural interest in the region.   Two weeks earlier the Junta’s culture delegate, Francisco López, said that the renovation project, which had not started after almost two years, was

waiting for Nerja town hall to make the finance available. He said that the aqueduct was not at risk of collapsing but did need urgent attention and called on Nerja to come up with the cash.

Tourism councillor José Miguel García responded to the criticism by placing the blame firmly on the regional government’s shoulders. “The responsibility is exclusively that of the Junta,” he said, adding that they “have to do their homework”. Sr García claimed that for two years the Junta had put off signing the convention which would permit restoration work to start, despite “numerous” approaches to its culture department.

He also alleged that Sr López had “tricked” the people of Nerja when he announced during the electoral campaign that the Junta would include finances for the restoration project in its budget. The council and Salsa are waiting to cooperate, he said. The town hall is understood to have €100,000 reserved for work on the aqueduct.

Nerja battles fly invasion

At the end of every summer, the number of house flies increases but this year in Nerja, there seems to have been a population explosion. Houses have been infested, restaurants have had to stop serving meals and a can of insect spray has become a scarce luxury commodity.

Experts are divided on the cause of the invasion, with some suggesting that the flies have been blown north by warm winds coming up from Africa. This theory appears to have some credibility given that the species of fly causing havoc in the town is reported to be one which is not normally found in these latitudes. Others suggest that the phenomenon is linked to the recent high temperatures and may be related to climate change.

However, nobody seems to know why Nerja seems to be almost alone in suffering the onslaught.

€7.2 million drugs haul
in Maro

The alarm was raised by SIVE, the radar system monitoring sea movements along the coast, which had spotted a suspicious vessel travelling towards the shore at high speed. The seven-metre boat landed on the El Molino de Papel beach near the mouth of the Miel river but when Guardia patrols reached the scene, its occupants had fled leaving behind 61 bales of hashish. Officers believe there were five people on board the boat but despite a thorough search, no trace of them was found.

Each bale of the drug weighed 30 kilos and the entire hail has an estimated street value of more than €7.2million.

VÉLEZ news

Debt row with Junta may halt tranvía

The outgoing mayor of Vélez-Málaga threatened to stop the tranvía operating if the regional government does not take on some of its debt. In less than two years, the tramway between Vélez and Torre del Mar has built up a deficit of around a million euros.

The mayor added that the most important thing was to search for a formula which would adjust the operational costs and implement new tariffs to make using the tranvía compatible with other forms of transport. He said it was likely that the Junta would give approval to use of the line’s second phase by the end of the month but that he would not take responsibility for it until the town hall had reached agreement with Sevilla on the system’s future financing.

The 1.4 kilometre extension takes the line from its present terminus at Calle Magallanes to the town’s old railway station, planned to be a new local transport hub. Meetings continue with Travelsa, the company which operates the tranvía, and Sr Delgado intended to press further for Junta involvement when he meets public works and transport councillor, Luis García.

Vélez-Málaga swings to
the left

Control of Vélez-Málaga Town Hall has returned to the socialist PSOE party. The Partido Popular (PP) had been running the municipality since the local elections in spring 2007 but a meeting of the town council at the end of October returned power to the left.

Maria Salomé Arroyo Sánchez has become the new mayor of Vélez-Málaga. A pact between the nine PSOE and two Izquierda Unida councillors with two of three Torre del Mar separatist party GIPMTM representatives gave the coalition a majority of one on the 26 seat council – enough to oust PP mayor Francisco Delgado Bonilla.

The third GIPMTM councillor, José Luis Sánchez Toré, abstained from voting on the motion of censure against the PP’s mayor. He now joins the opposition along with one Partido Andalucista and the ten PP councillors.

The new mayor immediately promised that the route which the town hall would now take would be one of austerity, efficiency and honesty. She said the new tripartite pact was clear and open, “despite the efforts of the Partido Popular to confuse the people of Vélez.”

Outgoing mayor Francisco Delgado said he was leaving office “with head held high and dignity intact.” He said that, although democratic and legal, the motion of censure against him constituted a “legal fraud and is immoral,” referring to the PSOE’s promised investment of 1.95 million euros in the municipality and the move to give independence to Torre del Mar.

Earlier in the same week, the regional government again rejected a move to facilitate the segregation of Torre del Mar. The request to amend the Andalucían Law of Demarcation which would allow the town to break away from control of Vélez-Málaga had been made by Sr Delgado. However, the Junta responded by saying that Torre del Mar did not meet the pre-requisites for independence.

Náutico takeover

Body
missing

A court in Vélez-Málaga ordered an investigation into the disappearance of the body of a baby who was still-born at the Hospital Comarcal a year ago.

It was later accidentally found in a freezer in the offices of the pathology department in Málaga’s new Justice Centre.  The director of Málaga’s Institute of Forensic Medicine (IML) has been fired from his job as a result.

Students protest

Málaga University students in Vélez- Málaga called a demonstration in protest at a change in transport arrangements.

Previously, the town hall provided free transport on Alsina Graells services to and from the city of Málaga. This year, the deal is restricted to just three specific departures from Vélez and three return journeys each day, which students say will increase their transportation costs.

New
nursery

The inauguration of the facility in Calle Huerto Carrión represents a €903,000 investment by the regional government. The centre can cater for eight babies under a year and 66 one- to three-yearolds between 7.30am and 5pm on working days.

Sea bed protection

A conference on the protection of sea bed plant life has been held in Torre del Mar.

A recently formed group in the Axarquía arranged the three-day event which examined how climate change affects underwater flora and how transplanting threatened species can help save them.

MÁLAGA news

Major
Málaga
drug traffickers caught

A major drug supply route into Málaga has been halted in an international operation. Sixteen arrests have been made in four countries and cocaine with an estimated street value of €1.75million seized.

National Police said that the gang trafficking the drugs used carriers known as ‘mules’ or ‘postmen’ to smuggle drugs into Spain hidden inside either their own bodies or their luggage. Investigators say each was paid €5,000 for a successful journey, while the organisation was able to move 10 kilos of cocaine every week in this way. Once sold to end-users, this would have provided them with an annual income of more than €18.5million, most of which is believed to have been invested in the alleged gang members’ countries of origin.

The operation began in Roquetas del Mar where the gang were initially based, although they moved the operation to the city of Málaga shortly afterwards. The two leaders, both Nigerian, used their foreign contacts in central and south America to obtain the drugs, while the two brothers of one of them looked after the details of obtaining air tickets and accommodation for the “mules,” as well as storing and distributing the drugs on arrival in Spain. The gang is believed to have been the principle supplier of cocaine in Málaga’s La Palmilla district.

As well as the four Nigerians, three Spanish, one Lithuanian and one Malayan were detained in Málaga. Other arrests were made in Sevilla, Madrid and Bilbao, plus two in Lisbon and one in Brussels. A 22-year-old Málaga man was also arrested in the British city of Birmingham. The 49.15 kilos of cocaine found when five addresses in Málaga were raided would have been worth an estimated €1.75million on the streets. As well as smaller quantities of other drugs, cash, mobile phones, three balances for measuring drug quantities, and a vehicle were confiscated.

Meanwhile in a separate operation, a 63- year-old woman has been arrested in Málaga’s La Palmilla area on suspicion of being the head of one of the major drug supplying gangs in the district. Previously, officers have been thwarted in their investigations into her activities because, they said, she never handled the drugs herself and always negotiated through third parties. However, she was detained after being seen passing a small quantity of drugs to a young person. Although a relatively minor offence, the police arrested her for trafficking and say they are now able to investigate her more thoroughly.

Entire Thyssen collection heads for Málaga

As it was confirmed that work on an €18million project for a new art museum in Málaga will begin imminently, it has been announced that Baroness Carmen Thyssen is to allow the entire collection bound for Andalucía to be brought to the city.

It had been expected that the Baroness’s priceless art works would be shared between galleries in Sevilla and Málaga but the town hall announced that the decision had been reversed. Around 180 works intended for permanent display in Andalucía, mainly by 19th and early 20th century artists from this region, will now be housed in the future Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, due to open to the public in Málaga during 2010.

The museum, to which the Baroness is loaning the art works until at least 2025, will be in the renovated Palacio de Villalón and a new three storey building to be constructed alongside it. The final plans for the project were expected to be signed off on October 14 and Málaga’s mayor, Francisco de la Torre, said work would start before the end of the year.

Casr wash theft

A youth who stole a Seat Toledo from a car-wash in Málaga started a chase through the city which left eleven vehicles damaged. The incident began around midday in Calle Bolivia when the car’s owner was assaulted by the 20-year old Chilean man who snatched the keys and drove off.

City
savings

Málaga has approved measures intended to save the city over €2million.

To meet the present economic downturn, salaries of elected and non-elected council members are now frozen, while budget cuts of up to 20 per cent have been imposed on a range of activities. Municipal gas and electricity consumption and the town hall’s €2.4million phone bill are also targeted for reductions.

More
lanes

Drivers on Málaga’s ring road can expect delays for the next 20 months while a third lane is added to each carriageway over a 3.1km stretch between El Limonor and the link to La Araña.

The €10.8million project was due to start a month ago and includes work inside the Calderón tunnels. Vehicles will be directed into temporary lanes while the work is underway.

Running
late

Málaga’s metro system, originally scheduled to open next February, will now not be operational until 2012.

The Junta de Andalucía has invited tenders for the city centre stretch under the Alameda and Paseo del Parque with construction starting in 2010. This is known to be the most difficult section because of the port’s proximity and the volumes of traffic supported by the land.

No more cameras

Expansion of Málaga’s city centre network of security cameras has been suspended for lack of funding.

It was planned to augment the existing 17 cameras with another 29 at a cost of €650,000 but this has now been postponed. A town hall application for the cash from the Junta was rejected for the present and future.

Restaurant bargains

Málaga is the cheapest city in Spain for ordering from restaurants’ menus del día.

The average price in the city is €7.55 compared with an average for the country of €9.50. The Organisation of Consumers and Users survey said that the most expensive was found in Zaragosa and cost €12.85.

Bus fares
 up

Ticket prices for Málaga’s urban bus services are set to rise in the New Year.

EMT said that prices will go up by ten per cent, increasing the basic €1 ticket to €1.10. EMT also announced that it will take delivery of the first of ten Euro 5 low-emission buses at the end of this year.

NATIONAL news

New
specialist police will deport
foreign criminals

A new police squad is being formed to expel foreign delinquents from the country. The Secretary of State for Security, Antonio Camacho, said that those foreigners who created “social alarm” would be handled by the special unit.

He explained that the new force would be part of the National Police force and would be known as the Foreign Offenders Expulsion Brigade (Bedex). It will collect information on foreign criminals who use violence while committing crimes, those who offend repeatedly and those whose aggression provokes a negative effect. These would include terrorists, criminal specialists and any foreigner committing acts of domestic or other violence. Bedex will search for and then deport such individuals to their countries of origin and will be able to issue a prohibition order against them returning to Spain, he added.

The Government’s move follows growing concern about the number of thefts and other crimes of violence in recent months, many attributed to foreign gangs. Sr Camacho said the new unit would start operating this autumn, adding that the Government was doing “reasonably well” on the subject of the security of its citizens. He said provisional figures for criminality during 2007 showed a 3.7 per cent drop on the previous year, and in the five years since 2002, the rate has dropped from 52.1 offences per thousand inhabitants to 47.5 last year.

Government wants
"black" 500€s back in the economy

There are some 108 million €500 notes in circulation in Spain but, unfortunately, most of them are not held in banks. The Government is now considering ways in which their holders could be persuaded to return them to general circulation.

The prospect of bringing over €50billion – equivalent to around five per cent of Spain’s Gross National Product - back into the economy is clearly attractive to ministers at a time when banks are seeking to improve liquidity, but it was reported that there is disagreement on how this could be achieved. One proposal is to offer an amnesty to those who have acquired the notes through black market property deals, an idea which Prime Minister Zapatero is said not to have rejected, but which has met with opposition from the Bank of Spain and the Secretary of State for Finance.

Spain is the country with the highest number of €500 banknotes in circulation, with 26 per cent of the total which exist in the Eurozone. But their scarcity on the street has led to the notes becoming known popularly as Bin Ladens, because proof of their existence has not been confirmed by sightings of them.

"Over optimistic" 2009 budget

Spain’s 2009 budget denies a recession is imminent despite forecasts it will hit the country before the end of 2008. Unveiling the figures, the Economy Minister Pedro Solbes described the budget as the “most austere” Spain has seen for years.

The Government’s plan for 2009 sees a reducing deficit and moderate growth, a far better outlook than any anticipated by Spanish banks. A survey by the savings bank consultancy FUNCAS says that gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 1.4 per cent this year, but by only 0.3 per cent in 2009, while the European Commission is predicting that Spain will go into recession before the end of 2008.

Analysts say that the Government is being over-optimistic and predict that the collapse of the construction industry and the world-wide financial crisis will cause things to worsen during 2009. The opposition Partido Popular said the budget would produce a large deficit in the public sector and an increase in unemployment.

Car sales crash

September recorded the biggest fall in car sales since records began.

Nationally, year-on-year figures dropped by 32.2 per cent while Andalucía recorded 35.9 per cent fewer sales. The data from the manufacturers’ group, Anfac, shows that in the first nine months of the year, vehicle sales were down 22 per cent on 2007.

The search
for Amy

Amy Fitzpatrick disappeared on the evening of New Year’s Day, January, 2008, at approximately 10pm when she left her friend’s house in the tourist resort of Riviera Del Sol on the Costa Del Sol to take the ten minute walk to her house and has not been seen since.

Amy was 15 at the time of her disappearance; she has dark brown hair, blue eyes and a pale complexion. She is 1.65m tall and was wearing brown crushed velvet tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt with the word "Diesel" in various different colours when she was last seen. She had no money, phone or passport. Amy is originally from Dublin but was living in Spain. We would like for people to think back to that night, it may be something small, could someone have seen Amy passing by? Maybe the hotel that is close by, maybe some car or taxi that passed by that night that might have seen Amy or something. Anyone who has information on Amy's disappearance please contact Amy's dad, Christopher Fitzpatrick, or Amy's aunt, Christine Kenny, at 00353 857542452 or speak to the police in English on (+34) 636 079 619. Police desk: (+34) 95 247 4030 or (+34) 95 248 7036 or click on these websites : www.searchforamy.com and www.bebo.com/helpfinda

Dearer
calls

Telefónica is raising prices for calls from some fixed-line phones in January.

The company announced that increases would range from 0.2 to 1.3 per cent, reflecting the increasing cost of maintaining its network of around 17 million fixed telephone lines. However, it added these would only affect the 30 per cent of subscribers who do not have ADSL broadband or flat fixed-line rates.

Police pay protest

Thousands of National Police and Guardia Civil officers participated in a protest in Madrid, despite threats of being sacked from the Interior Ministry.

Marchers called for salaries to be increased to match those of local and regional police forces and for the resignation of the Interior Minister. Most wore street clothes rather than their uniforms in order to avoid possible sanctions.