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SIGN OF THE TIMES
When Andalucia's regional television channel, Canal Sur, recently advertised 112 jobs in different departments, it received an astonishing 18,700 replies. A third of the openings are for receptionist-telephonists, gofers and administrative clerks while another third are distributed among production, the newsroom and scriptwriters. The rest are for technicians, cameramen, and maintenance people. Job interviews began last week at the Congress Centre in Seville.
DOZEN GOOD DOWNPOURS NEEDED
A spokesman for the Cuenca Mediterranea Andaluza (Mediterranean Water Board) said last week that Malaga needs another dozen downpours like the recent ones ten days ago or six weeks of steady rain to end the drought that has been affecting the province for the past four years. Antonio Rodriguez Leal said the province would need 40% more rain above the annual average of 560 litres per square metre, that is, 800 litres per m2 to fill the reservoirs, which are still too low.
CARTAMA TO GET ITV CENTRE
Residents of the Guadalhorce Valley will be able to have their vehicles ITV-tested closer to home in (hopefully) the not-too-distant future. Cartama Town Hall has just approved the construction of a new industrial estate half-way between Cartama town and Estacion de Cartama, which will include an official ITV test centre. The Town Hall spokesman who announced the project last week did not say when work would begin on the project.
SKI RESORT TO OPEN EARLY
A spokesman for Cetursa, the company which manages the Sierra Nevada ski resort, has said the slopes could be open to the public as early as November 15th or the 22nd this year if the current low temperatures continue. The resort usually opens in December, snowfall permitting.
UPROAR OVER BANDERAS HOUSE
The owners of houses in the Los Monteros urbanisation in Marbella have said they will formally accuse the Town Council of peddling political favours if Antonio Banderas' house there is legalised. The film star's beach front house was on the list of those to be demolished for building irregularities but will be regularised under the provisionally approved General Urban Plan (PGOU). Apparently Banderas has agreed to pay an unspecified amount in compensation and to relinquish some thousand square metres of garden. The other residents claim that the star - a known supporter of the Socialist regional and national governments - is being given special treatment because of his political affiliation.
BRITON KILLED IN CAR CRASH
A 24-year-old British man, identified only by the initials L.W., died in a car crash involving three vehicles on the A7 near the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos, direction Torremolinos, at 2.20am last Sunday morning. Six people were injured in the accident, three of them seriously. Two of them had to be freed from the wreckage by firemen. Police said one car had hit the central reservation before ploughing into two other cars.
ROCA USED MOTHER FOR TAX REASONS
Juan Antonio Roca, the alleged brain behind the Malaya and Saqueo 1 corruption cases in Marbella, denied in court last week denied that he had used his own companies to divert public money from the Marbella Town Hall between the years 1991 and 1995. He suggested that someone in the Town Hall had taken advantage of his accounts. When asked why his companies and other assets were in his mother's name, the former municipal urban planning adviser Roca said he had always used her name "for tax reasons". Another man charged in the Saqueo case, former legal adviser Jose Luis Sierra, told the court: "Nobody even breathed in Marbella without the express order of Gil", referring to the late Mayor Jesus Gil y Gil. He added: "If anyone did anything without his permission, even if it was the logical thing to do, they would be looking for a job the next day."
MUÑOZ DROPS JUICY TV DEAL
Former Marbella Mayor JuliAn Muñoz, who was recently granted an open prison regime after being found guilty of real estate irregularities, thought he was onto a good thing when he did a deal to sell his story to the Tele5 TV channel for €350,000. Presenter Ana Rosa Quintana even came down from Madrid last week to record the exclusive in Marbella only to have it cancelled at the last minute after the judge hearing the cases against Munoz instructed the prosecutor to look into the matter for tax purposes.
FINES BRING LITTER BUGS TO HEEL
After a 15-month campaign costing 150,000 to persuade the residents of Marbella to keep their streets clean, the Town Hall has taken off the kid gloves and started fining litterbugs, god owners who do not clean up after their pets and people who leave their rubbish in the street outside the allotted hours of 9-11 pm. Since a plain-clothes policeman and a team of "tecnicos (experts)" began patrolling the streets on September 15th, they have handed out 84 fines ranging for €25 (for dog owners) to €600 for hotels and stores, for a total amount of more than €32,000. The biggest fine - €2,400 - is reserved for the owners of dogs belonging to dangerous breeds who do not wear muzzles when walking them in public. A Town Hall spokesman said dog owners are now becoming "more aware" since the fines started.