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.
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.
BIKERS IN BARRIER PROTEST
Some 10,000 motorcyclists blocked the streets in the centre of Madrid last Saturday when they staged their 3rd National Motorbike Demonstration to back their demands for the removal of safety barriers which they claim are fatal for motorcyclists. As if to highlight their claim, a motorcyclist died after he crashed into a safety barrier just outside Madrid only hours before the demonstration started. Before setting out from the Santiago Bernabeu football stadium, the participants observed a minute's silence for that death and the 500 motorcyclists who died on Spain's roads in the past 12 months. Their other demands included the use of non-slip paint on the roads, a general resurfacing and the suppression of the new €1,500 motorbike purchase tax. A spokesman for Unidad Motera (Motorcyclist Union) said the latest measures adopted by the Traffic Authority, such as raising the minimum age for driving a motorbike to 16 or a tougher driving test, only made owning a bike more expensive without teaching the driver the necessary skills. Smaller demonstrations were held in other cities across the country.
FIRST BROWN BEAR ROAD KILL
The first case of a brown bear being killed on the road was confirmed last week by the foundation set up to protect the species. The Brown Bear Foundation said a young male was hit by a lorry early last Tuesday morning on the A-6 highway in Trabadelo, Leon province. Apparently the animal had climbed over the fence protecting the bear sanctuary in Alto Sil. A spokesman for the Brown Bear Association said: "The young males love exploring and it's not unusual for them to stray." He said there are only 130 brown bears in the north of Spain and that Alto Sil was a major reproductive area.
NEW AIRLINE TICKET REGULATION
A new regulation introduced last week stipulates that taxes and other extra charges can no longer be hidden in advertising for airline tickets. Airlines have to show the final price in all their publicity from now on, with fuel surcharges and airport taxes included. The regulation is part of an EU initiative designed to allow the public to better compare offers in the marketplace.
DRASTIC DROP IN SPEEDING FINES
Fines for speeding dropped drastically in Malaga province in the first six months of this year - down to 28,551 as opposed to 43,293 in the same period last year. A spokesman for the provincial Traffic Authority said this was due to the seven installed radar controls and the points system. He said another seven radars will be installed in the near future. Meanwhile, the Guardia Civil traffic patrols have launched a campaign to enforce the correct use of lanes on the highways and of indicators. The spokesman said it was to make drivers more aware of the fact that they should stick to the right-hand lane unless they were going to overtake. He said the incorrect use of the left-hand lane caused back-ups and slowed down the traffic.
RYANAIR CLOSES DOWN AT VALENCIA
Ryanair announced last week that it will close all its operations at Valencia Airport following a row with the Generalitat regional government over subsidies. Ryanair had sought funding to increase its operations at the airport, but the Generalitat said there was no money. Ryanair Deputy Chairman, Michael Cawley, said the Generalitat had refused to meet with them. He said it was "a very black day for Valencia Airport". Ryanair operates 70 flights a week from the airport to Stansted, East Midlands and Liverpool, among other destinations. It takes 750,000 passengers a year at Valencia where some 750 jobs could now be lost, although the airline said it wants to transfer the workers to its other bases in Spain - at Madrid, Reus, Alicante and Girona. Flights from ten routes to Bolonia, East Midland, Eindhoven, Liverpool, Maastricht, Malta, Oporto, Paris Beauvais and Santiago de Compostela will be cancelled from November 4th, and passengers will be offered a full refund.
OIL PRICE DROPS, PETROL STAYS THE SAME
Although the price of oil have halved since August, drivers in Malaga province don't feel such a difference in their pockets when they fill up their tanks. A spokesman for the Andalucian Federation of Petrol Stations said this was because a barrel of oil was quoted in dollars and the dollar is now much stronger against the euro. Another anomaly is that petrol stations only a few kilometres apart have very different prices. A recent survey showed that the cheapest petrol is sold in Antequera and Mijas - €1.022 per litre - and the most expensive in Alhaurin el Grande and Fuengirola - €1.131. Yet at least one service station in both Antequera and Mijas are selling petrol at the highest price. Just another on of life's mysteries!
TWO SHIPS RUN AGROUND IN STORMY WEATHER
The crew of the Liberian cargo ship Fedra, which smashed against Europa Point in heavy seas and ran aground last Friday evening, was rescued at dawn on Sunday following a dramatic all-night rescue operation, involving emergency services and four tugs from Gibraltar and Spain. The last members of the 31-crew were hoisted off the 24-year-old vessel by an improvised crane system just before it broke in two. A Spanish rescue helicopter that battled high winds and rough seas well into the previous night managed to lift off some five crew before its rotary system was affected by the sea spray, forcing it to make an urgent landing at the scene on the rock. The Gib construction company Euro Gruas was then called in and with a cage attached to a large crane managed to hoist up the bulk of the crew off the ship as first light broke on Sunday. Most of the shaken crew members were staying at the Caleta Hotel, although one was kept in St Bernard's Hospital suffering from exhaustion. Salvage experts from the US company Titan Maritime assisted in the rescue operation. One of its vessels was standing by close to the wreck of the New Flame at the time and was first on the scene. The New Flame ran aground just metres away in August last year. The Fedra has a chequered history and was detained last August by port state control inspectors in China, who found a total of 18 deficiencies including three relating to its propulsion and auxiliary machinery. Previous inspections this year had also found numerous deficiencies. Due to last Friday's very stormy weather, another Liberian cargo boat, the Tawe, ran aground off the Punta de San Garcia in Algeciras Bay. Both the Tawe and the Fedra are leaking fuel into the sea, although at the time of going to press heavy seas were making it impossible to gauge the extent of the damage.
HUMAN BILLBOARDS BANNED FROM MADRID
Madrid City Council introduced a law last week to take human billboards off the streets, along with pamphlet distributors and cars with huge ads on their roofs, at the beginning of next year. Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced the clean-up two years ago, although not all advertising symbols will be banned. The familiar chemist's green cross stays, as do Tio Pepe and Schweppes. The city's famous Gran Via and Puerta del Sol will still light up at night but the neon lights will disappear from most of the oldest parts of the city. And the new law also limits the amount of light output for the ads. But there will be no more two-legged billboards offering to buy gold, discounts on all and sundry, or advertising the services of African witch doctors "littering" the streets and causing "visual contamination".