BAD WEATHER RAVAGED BEACHES
Last week's storms and "levante" winds ravaged beaches along the Costa del Sol and kept the fishing fleets in Malaga and Cadiz in port. The Environment Ministry has promised to rebuild beaches in time for Easter. A ministry spokesman said in many cases the sand had moved from one part of the beach to another,. He said such movement is normal and the beaches often recover to some extent naturally.
GOLF DECREE APPROVED
The Junta de Andalucia has approved the long awaited Golf Decree which bans the use of drinking water for irrigating on golf courses in the region. Only recycled water can be used. The Decree will become law next month after its publication in the Official Bulletin, and existing courses will have two years to bring their facilities in line with the new regulations. The decree also puts a stop to projects that link housing developments to golf courses, unless the course is seen to be of tourist interest. In that case, a technical commission would have to approve the project which would then go to the regional government for final approval. Los Verdes (Greens) party condemned the exception, saying it "leaves the cat flap open" for unsustainable property speculation. To stress their point, they gave Junta de Andalucia president Manuel Chaves a mini-golf set so that he could play golf at home un his garden "without turning Andalucia into one massive green", a party spokesman said.
MAINS GAS NETWORK TO BE EXTENDED
Gas Natural announced last week that mains gas will arrive in Marbella, Estepona and Cártama this year. Marbella is the only town in Spain with a population of more than 100,000 which does not yet have mains gas. Gas Natural supplies 54 municipalities in Malaga province via pipeline and has also established a natural liquid gas plant in Vélez-Málaga. Towns to be connected to the network in the future include Torrox, Manilva, Casares and Coín, and the government has authorised a connection as far as Nerja.
NEW SCHOOL FOR CARTAMA
Representatives of the Junta de Andalucia and Cártama town council signed an agreement last week ceding 12,000 square metres of land in Cártama Estación on which the regional government plans to build a new secondary school. Mayor José Garrido said the plot is close to the rapidly growing Chaves urbanisation which will soon need a new school. Currently, there are only two secondary schools in the area - the Jarifa school in Cártama town and the Valle del Azahar in Cártama Estación.
ALLEGATIONS OF UNLAWFUL PROPERTY TAX DEMANDS
The Partido Popular has asked the Junta de Andalucia to relieve the Socialist-controlled local council in La Viñuela of responsibility for urban planning. The request follows reports that hundreds of owners of illegally built properties in the municipality have been asked to pay a "voluntary tax" of up to 12,000 € to make their properties legal. The town's PP spokesman, Francisco González, said the people affected, mostly foreign residents, built their homes with a licence granted by the Town Hall, but are now being told that such licences are no longer valid on judicial order of the Junta de Andalucia. Sr González said that the town hall's demand for money is not part of any recognised judicial procedure. The town's Socialist mayor, Juan Millán, has denied asking for the tax to be paid and has blamed a third party for "possible fraud" in the matter. But some owners claim that they have already paid the tax in the municipal office. The Junta has said it will investigate the tax allegations which a spokesman described as "unheard of". Meanwhile the Environment Prosecutor has announced that a helicopter is being used to fly over Malaga province to search for illegally built properties. The Guardia Civil's SEPRONA environment department will man the flights and take photographic and video evidence. The first flight took place last and a Guardia Civil spokesman said SEPRONA is particularly concerned about illegal constructions in forestry areas because of the fire risk.
TRAVEL TIME TO BARCELONA HALVED
The length of the journey to Malaga to Barcelona will be cut by half - from 13 to six and a half hours - as of February 20th. The route is still via Madrid-Atocha, with stops at Antequera, Puente Genil, Cordoba, Zaragoza and Tarragona but an AVE fast train like the one currently in service between Malaga and Madrid will replace the slower Talgo Garcia Lorca.
CRIMINAL FAMILY CLAN BUSTED
The Guardia Civil have arrested a gang of drug traffickers involved in two shooting incidents in Coín. They said the gang was a "family clan" in which the women did the planning and looked after the investments, while the men transported the drugs and settled scores. Operacion Fuensanta, named after the area in Coín where the two shootings took place last November, came to a head on February 13th, when searches carried out in Malaga, Mijas and Fuengirola provided vital information for cracking the case. Two-and-a-half kilos of high-purity cocaine, two pistols and ammunition, together with several vehicles and cash in both euros and dollars were also recovered. Three people have been sent to jail without bail, and another three have been released on bail with charges against them.
WOMAN KILLED IN ROBBERY
A 25-year-old woman died has died after being stabbed during a robbery last Thursday evening at the mattress and bedding shop where she worked in the centre of Chiclana, Cádiz province. Police said Dolores Amaya Ramírez died almost instantly but not before she rang her family on her mobile to tell them she had been stabbed. The attacker, who had his face covered, managed to escape. The local council cancelled the carnival parade which was to take place last weekend and a demonstration against violent crime was planned for Monday lunchtime.
TOLOX MAYOR ON TRIAL
If a Malaga judge has his way, Tolox Mayor Juan Vera will spend between one to two years in jail for granting building licences for more than 2,000 homes in the town. Construction was halted but if it had gone ahead the new homes would have tripled the town's current population of 2,400. The prosecution told a Malaga court that Sr Vera, of the Andalucista Party (PA), has committed as many as 23 urban crimes by allowing construction on rustic land. In his own defence, the mayor said there was no urban plan for him to follow. He said the charges were politically motivated and that the town's infrastructure could supply water to at least 20,000 people.
OIL SPILL ROW PUTS GIBRALTAR IN POLITICAL SPOTLIGHT
The main opposition party, the Partido Popular (PP) increased the spotlight on Gibraltar last week in what appeared to be a move to capitalise politically on the recent New Flame oil spill off Algeciras. Last Thursday, La Línea Mayor Juan Carlos Juarez, who belongs to the PP and is currently facing formal allegations of corruption, ordered Ayuntamiento officials to take a written complaint (denuncia) to the courts against Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana, alleging criminal negligence in the handling of the incident and failure to act in a way that would have avoided the recent oil spill. Political observers in the Campo de Gibraltar have suggested that the mayor's move amounted to making political hay ahead of general elections due on March 9th. Sr Juarez said last Friday that he would not accept criticism that his motives are electorally driven: "The Junta de Andalucia and the government in Madrid have had six months to deal with this. Their failure to get involved confirms the precarious state of foreign affairs and a lack of a sense of obligation even to safeguard territorial waters." Meanwhile the PP itself has asked the European Commission to investigate Spain's role in the New Flame affair. The party's MEP Gerardo Galeote wants to know if all the EU norms and requirements were met in this incident and believes that these may have been violated by both Spain and UK. Last Saturday, opposition leader Mariano Rajoy said if he is elected in March he will insist on Gibraltar being removed from the so-called tri-partite talks between Spain, Britain and Gibraltar on the issue of sovereignty.