LOCAL news

Downpours bring disaster to Viñuela properties

Several properties around Lake Viñuela have suffered serious damage following recent heavy rains. In one case, a house on the south bank has slipped around five metres downhill.

The occupants felt tremors earlier in the week and decided to evacuate, along with their furniture. The slippage occurred after they had left safely and it has left their home almost two metres lower that it was, standing at about five degrees from the vertical. (Pictures by Chris Topping)

The slippage also destroyed 200 metres of the approach road to the property.

Caves'
budget concerns
Nerja

Nerja town hall has been critical of the organisation which manages the municipality’s complex of caves.

what has happened to the €2million loan which the town hall was legally obliged to make to the museum’s development, given that the museum was to have received ten per cent of admission fees from the opening date, originally planned for 2008.

He added that all requests to the foundation for financial aid towards projects in Nerja and Maro have been rejected, and described Sr Ramírez’ management as “ill-fated and worrying”.

Council
walk out

Opposition socialist councillors walked out of a Nerja town council meeting after one of their members was expelled from the chamber.

Mayor José Alberto Armijo asked Luis Peña to leave after the councillor had been warned three times for interrupting proceedings. The socialist group said there had been no reason for the mayor to take such action and criticised his “dictatorial” attitude.

Frigiliana centre

Frigiliana has announced it is to build a multi-purpose municipal centre close to its Cultural Centre.

The cost of €322,000 will be met by Madrid’s local sustainability programme, intended to create employment. The project will include the renovation of a former and abandoned adult education centre next to the municipal sports facility, La Horca.

Jaen
reopened

The €85,000 upgrade of Calle Jaen in Nerja has been completed. Pavements have been widened and underground rubbish containers have been installed.

After the completion, financed equally by the town hall and the Junta de Andalucía, the street was opened but with traffic flow, reversed from previous arrangements, from east to west.

Cómpeta complaint

The socialist group at Cómpeta town hall complained about construction work in the town centre.

They said that the project to build a 150-space underground car park has caused “serious damage” to neighbouring properties. The €3.5million development, presently in its first phase, is being financed by Madrid’s employment creation fund.

Call for
rethink on
golf course

The stalled attempt to build a golf course in Nerja has returned to the forefront with calls for the regional government to unblock the project. It was reported that the Cataluña company which bought the land from Nerja town hall has asked the Junta de Andalucía to have the willpower to resolve the situation.

In 2004, the multinational Medgroup agreed to pay Nerja €15 million for a million square metres of land in an area close to the caves known as La Coladilla. Plans were drawn up for the 18-hole golf course, a five-star hotel and a thousand luxury homes. Since then, payments have been made into the municipal coffers, totalling €11 million by 2008.

Walkers rescued

Frigiliana
debt denied

The finance councillor of Frigiliana has denied claims by the opposition Partido Popular that the town is €3million in debt.

Adolfo Moyano of the PP accused the Partrido Andalucista administration of “mortgaging the future of the citizens”. The PA’s Domingo Guerrero said the PP’s figure was wrong and that the municipal debt was less than €1million.

Help with aqueduct?

Brit
arrested
 

A British man was arrested by Guardia Civil officers in Nerja after another foreigner complained he had been robbed and threatened with a knife.

The incident, which took place in the street, was followed by the identification and arrest of the alleged attacker. He has been detained in prison.

Pool
progress

Torrox town hall has licensed work to complete the new swimming pool in the town.

The €541,000 project had been delayed for three years but the Junta finally published its terms and conditions allowing it to proceed. Sports councillor Teodoro Ruiz said that it would restart in April or May and take six months to complete.

Salobreña death crash

Three people died and three others were seriously injured in a head-on collision on the N-340 at Salobreña.

The accident between an Audi car and an Opel van took the lives of both drivers and one of the car passengers. The survivors, described as critical, were rushed to hospital in Motril.

Mayor blasts administrative problems for water delay

Nerja’s mayor has branded “the lack of understanding between administrations” over the town’s long awaited water treatment plant as a “major mistake”. The comments by José Alberto Armijo followed a suggestion by the water authority that the project could be moved forward in phases.

The idea of an underwater pipeline has been rejected by the Costas office in Madrid but remains unopposed by its office in Málaga, he claimed.

“I’m asking those responsible in the PSOE for fewer false claims and for more conscientious and effective work to get this project going,” said the mayor in response to earlier comments by socialist deputy Luis Tomás who accused Sr Armijo of “undermining” it. “Less political wrangling, less looking at the past, and more work and co-ordination,” he demanded, while assuring that the project has his “full collaboration”.

More river upgrades

Nerja wants to upgrade the final stretch of another river in the municipality. The proposal follows the recent completion of work on the final 1.5 kilometres of the River Chillar which, as well as constructing a new leisure footpath and cycle lane, has protected the course from flooding.

Now the town hall wants to turn its attention to the River Seco which flows into the sea towards the town’s western border with Torrox, as well as the upper stretches of the Chillar. Environment councillor José Miguel Jimena told a town council meeting that the intention is to provide more leisure facilities with footpaths, similar to those along the lower Chillar.

The length of the Seco to be upgraded would be longer at two kilometres but, said the councillor, the work would be much more straightforward. He added that the town hall wanted the Junta de Andalucía to fund the projects, unlike the first upgrades to the Chillar to which municipal funds contributed €4million.

The meeting approved a motion to ask the regional government’s environment department to start the proceedings for the project’s development.

Torrox beach protection

Land owners along a kilometre stretch of the Torrox coastline have been advised that the Environment Department intends to complete the recovery of the beach into public hands. More than 21 hectares of land is reported to be affected.

The area runs 1.1 kilometres east from the mouth of the River Torrox to the Frontiles water course and will take in land within 200 metres of the shoreline. The local beaches included are known as Mazagarrobo, Torre de Calaceite, Calaceite and Arroyo Frontiles. The government says the object is to avoid the saturation of the coastline in an area which has retained its identity without construction of a paseo marítimo or significant pressure from continuing urbanisation.

Entertaining Toledo
 

UK students back

Nerja has again welcomed students from the UK as part of their training in tourism.

For the 10th consecutive year, a group from the Royal Holloway, University of London, spent some time in the town learning about many aspects of the municipality’s operations. Their itinerary included meetings with councillors and foreign residents to discuss education and sustainable development.

School upgrade "urgent"

The first deputy mayor of Torrox has called for an “urgent” upgrade to the Colina del Sol school.

José Pérez claimed that the Junta de Andalucía has improved El Morche school three times over the last five years but the Torrox school has seen no improvements in three decades. Parents of the 300 students at the school have also complained to the Junta.

Crime down 18%

Nerja bucked the national trend which has seen an increase in crime matching an increase in unemployment.

Local police figures for last year recorded 18 per cent fewer reported crimes in the municipality than in 2008. The councillor responsible Jonathan Méndez said that the statistics reflected the excellent cooperation between local police and Guardia Civil officers.

Frigiliana plans

Frigiliana wants its local development plan (PGOU) ready for initial approval after Easter.

Urbanisation councillor Francisco Moyano said he expects it to be completed in April. The plan includes proposals for 200 new houses, a fairground and a new industrial estate with most of the expansion to the north of the town centre,

Drugs
arrest

An Almuñécar man was arrested after being found in possession of 200 grams of high quality cocaine.

He was stopped at a routine police checkpoint south of Granada where officers first found two doses of marihuana and one of speed. However, closer inspection found the bag of cocaine hidden in the 40-year-old driver’s left sock.

VÉLEZ news

Final "no" to Torre's independence

Torre del Mar has long dreamed of becoming independent of Vélez-Málaga but it appears that an EU ruling means the dream will never be fulfilled.

With a population of around 22,000, Torre del Mar has been the subject of a 22 year campaign by separatists who want it to cease being a part of the municipality of Vélez and to have its own town hall. As part of this drive, the town’s Independent councillors, the GIPMTM group, took their case to the European Court of Human Rights in October 2006, after it had been rejected in a number of domestic court cases in previous years.

However, the EU’s final ruling has also gone against them. The text stated that the decision was, “definitive and cannot be appealed to this Tribunal or any other entity”. In addition, the Independent group was told that their application to the court and all papers relating to it must be destroyed within 12 months.

Manuel Rincón Granados, the leader of the segregationists and Vélez’ deputy mayor with responsibility for Torre del Mar, said that the decision opened a period of reflection. “The decision from Strasburg ends everything,” he said, “except political negotiations”.

However, he made it clear that the disappointing outcome should not be taken to signal the end of Torre del Mar’s GIPMTM group. “We will continue to exist,” he insisted, adding that they would maintain pressure for further administrative decentralisation from Vélez-Málaga town hall.

Vélez
changes bus routes
 to save tranvía

Vélez-Málaga’s tramway has had the worst 12 months of its short existence. Last year, the tranvía carried the fewest number of passengers since it entered service in October 2006 - and now the town hall plans action.

Year-end figures showed that there were 695,038 paying passengers travelling between Vélez and Torre del Mar during 2009. This represents only 40 per cent of the break-even figure of almost 1.2 million which is guaranteed by Vélez town hall and indicates that the tranvía has lost 213,000 users in the last two years.

Under the contract between the town hall and the system operator, Travelsa, the municipality must pay a subsidy for each of the 472,291 guaranteed passengers who failed to use the tramway last year, a sum believed to total €793,448.

The town hall announced measures in an attempt to recover the situation. It plans to change the routes of the privately operated bus services in and out of the town, including those to Torre del Mar, Almayate and La Caleta de Vélez. Transport councillor Antonio López said that the intention is to route these via Avenida de las Naciones, Villa de Madrid and Carlos III, which would avoid duplicating much of the tranvía’s route within Vélez.

Foreign residents
office
in Torre 

With a non-Spanish population now accounting for at least 14 per cent of its total, Vélez-Málaga has opened a Foreign Residents Office. Tourism councillor Javier Checa said the object was to encourage integration.

The municipality presently has an official population of 78,647 of which 11,222 are from countries other than Spain. Around 100 nationalities are represented with Moroccans constituting the largest group (1,443) followed by the Germans (1,434) and the British (1,323). However, with many foreign residents failing to meet the obligation to join the municipal census, it is thought the number of foreign residents in Vélez is probably nearer 20,000.

The new office was inaugurated in Torre del Mar within the tourism office in the Casa Bako, which is presently being refurbished. It is open from Monday to Thursday, 10am to 2pm, with staff who speak Spanish, English, German and French.

Museum
work starts

Construction of the new municipal contemporary arts museum in Vélez- Málaga is about to begin. The €2.4million project Plaza San Juan de Dios is expected to be completed in 13 months.

Torre bar stabbing

Police in Vélez-Málaga have detained a man in connection with the stabbing of a bar owner in Torre del Mar.

Officers called to a disturbance found the Belgian proprietor bleeding profusely from a stomach wound while his alleged attacker, a Benamocarra man, had locked himself in the toilets. Investigators also found a 15 centimetre knife, covered in blood, in the bar’s kitchen.

€7.8 million
for projects
 

Vélez-Málaga is to receive funding for 35 projects from the second phase of the government’s employment incentive scheme. The total to be received by the municipality is more than €7.8million.

Infrastructure councillor Salvador Marín said that this would include €1.5million for social services, €600,000 for new technologies and €400,000 for upgrades to six schools.

New road opens

A new 2.5 kilometre road has opened in the north of Vélez-Málaga. It runs from the Los Zamoranos industrial estate to the roundabout at the fire station.

The €918,000 project, which was funded by the government’s Plan Zapatero and is intended to reduce congestion in the town centre, is expected to be of benefit to 40,000 people daily.

Land reclassified

The proposal to reclassify land for a Transport Logistics Centre in Vélez-Málaga was approved by the municipality’s Urbanisation Committee.

However, the area for the project was reduced from its proposed 1.3 million to 950,000 square metres, with an area north of the A-356 excluded after petitioning by land-owners. The land earmarked for the centre is now classed as industrial, rather than rustic.

Road
closed

The main road from Vélez-Málaga to Casabermeja was closed last month and is not scheduled to re-open until March.

Repair work on a stretch of the A-357 between Colmenar and Riogordo is making it impassable to all vehicles. Alternative routes recommended are the A7 and A45 autovías for heavy traffic and the A-7204 for those under four tons in weight.

Drain cover thefts

Vélez-Málaga is suffering a wave of thefts of drain and man-hole covers.

Local police have been asked to investigate the robberies while municipal workman have been working to replace them in order to avoid road accidents.

Beach fines
to be axed?

Vélez-Málaga town hall has asked the Costas department to suspend fines imposed on 14 of the 17 beach bars in Torre del Mar. They were sanctioned in 2007 for exceeding the maximum area allowed and fines of between €6,000 and €30,000 were issued.

MÁLAGA news

Málaga
to fine
jay-walkers under new
by-law

Málaga pedestrians who cross the road illegally can now be fined €90. Details of a raft of new mobility regulations forming a new municipal by-law appeared in the official provincial bulletin.

Those who choose to cross a road by disregarding traffic signals or in an unauthorised zone will be fined €18 if spotted by a local police officer. However, if the individual is considered to have obstructed traffic or caused danger or nuisance, the sanction can be raised to €90.

Mobility councillor, Juan Ramón Casero, said that the new regulations were needed to meet the evolution of the city. He explained they were designed to anticipate future problems.

Cyclists now face an €18 fine if they ride on pavements or in zones regarded as pedestrian areas. They will be excused if there is no area for their exclusive use and if they travel at less than 10 kph, provided traffic signs do not specifically exclude them.

Those travelling along pavements and similar areas on skates or skateboards can be fined €12 if they exceed normal walking pace. Motorists can expect a €30 fine if they sound their car horn in an unnecessary or exaggerated manner, a restriction which will impact on the processions of private vehicles which drive noisily through the streets following the car or limo of a newly-married couple.

A similar fine can be expected by those who overload their vehicles with more than the regulation number of passengers.

Sanctions of €91 apply to drivers who fail to use vehicle safety belts or motorcycle crash helmets, while skipping a red light is regarded as very serious and could result in a €150 fine.

Málaga father jailed
for abuse of long-lost daughter

A Málaga court jailed a 65-year-old local man for sexually abusing his daughter with whom he had been reunited after 34 years. It followed his appearance on a reality television programme in which he appealed for both his children to contact him.

The father, who cannot be named to protect his victim, separated from his daughter’s mother in 1976 and went on Antena 3’s “El Diario de Patricia” in 2003 to try to find his family. The programme, which specialises in family scandals and reunions, happened to be seen by one of his younger daughters, by then 38-yearsold, and he was reunited with her.

Shortly after their first meeting, her father kissed her on the lips and sexually abused her. Later, the court heard, he raped her but denied the charges, claiming that she had invented the story to punish him for abandoning the family when she was a child.

A psychiatric report was presented which said that the woman reacted as she did “because of the lack of support which she had suffered throughout her life”. The court refused to believe the father’s version of events and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment.

Antena 3 denied any involvement in the incident, arguing that the attacks took place a year after the father’s appearance on their programme.

It is not the first time that “El Diario de Patricia” has brought the channel into the headlines. Two years ago, a single mother was murdered by her former boyfriend a week after she turned down his proposal of marriage during a live broadcast. It transpired that, following a stormy relationship, the victim had a restraining order against the man who stabbed her to death.

Steroids seized

One person in Málaga is amongst 11 detained nationwide in a crackdown on the distribution of illegal steroids in gyms.

Officers were reported to have seized 15,000 doses of the performance-enhancing drugs, some labelled in Russian or Arabic, at the conclusion of a ten-month investigation. The substances are prohibited from use without adequate medical controls and can cause serious health problems.

Suicide tragedy

A 21-year-old’s failed suicide attempt left an 81-year-old woman dead.

The girl threw herself from an eighth floor window of a Málaga tower block but landed on the woman who was passing in the street below. The victim, a local resident, died at the scene while the girl, who was hospitalised with broken bones and bruising, could face a charge of negligent killing.

Fuel sales down

An association representing Málaga’s filling stations has warned of a sharp drop in the volumes of fuel being sold.

Agavecar said that the average in a year is 2.8 million litres per outlet, compared with 3.5 million five years ago. In addition to lower spending by private drivers, it said the sector is suffering from fewer industrial vehicles and vans on the roads.

Fewer
fly in

The number of passengers passing through Málaga airport in January was 3.7 per cent down on the same month last year. There were 6.7 per cent fewer aircraft operations and cargo traffic was down 17.5 per cent. The figures contrast with a three per cent rise in passenger numbers nationally, and, even more sharply, with a 13.7 per cent increase at Granada airport.

By contrast, the number of passengers using Málaga’s rail terminal during last year was 67 per cent up on 2008. Almost 4.7 million people passed through the María Zambrano station with June and October showing the greatest usage.

Data from Adif places Málaga as the second busiest station in Andalucía after the Santa Justa in Sevilla which possibly explains the decline in air passengers.

Always on Sundays
 

The Junta is to open proceedings against Necsa, the operator of Málaga’s Vialia commercial centre at the city’s rail terminal.

The company is charged with failing to observe the region’s trading laws by opening 365 days per year. Necsa was recently granted permission to open 500 square metres of shops on Sundays and holidays but is reported to have continued to open fully every day.

Euromillions winner
 

Someone who bought a Euromillions ticket in Málaga is €770,286 better off.

A winning ticket drawn was sold from the lottery office in the city’s El Corte Inglés commercial centre. The ticket holder had chosen all five numbers drawn, plus one of the two star numbers. Nobody won the first prize that week which rolled over into a €28million draw.

Suicide stopped

Officers stopped a 27-year-old Moroccan from jumping from the roof of Málaga’s National Police base.

He was first spotted walking naked near the Carlos Haya tunnel where he was endangering traffic and was taken in for questioning but on arrival he sprinted up to the fourth floor and threatened to jump. The man was later taken to hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Terminal opening
 

King Juan Carlos has been invited to perform the official opening ceremony of the new passenger terminal at Málaga airport.

Politicians, diplomats and leaders of the aviation sector are expected to be amongst 500 guests at the event which has been set for March 15. Terminal T-3 will be able to handle 9,000 passengers per hour, twice the present capacity.

NATIONAL news

Call to end winter fuel payments

The UK Tax Payers’ Alliance has called for an end to the winter fuel payments made to British pensioners abroad. Up to £400 is paid to Brits who qualified to receive the benefit while resident in the UK.

The winter fuel payment was introduced by the British government in 1997 and is a yearly tax-free payment to help those aged 60 and over to pay for their heating during the winter. Figures from the Department of Works and Pensions show it was received last year by 12.3 million people in the UK and by 63,740 British citizens living abroad.

However, the benefit has been controversial to British residents of Spain for years because some people receive it while others do not. This is a result of the condition which makes the cash available only to those who were in receipt of the benefit before leaving the UK. Any British citizen who has reached the qualifying age while living outside the UK is not eligible.

The number of recipients abroad has risen by almost 14 per cent over 12 months which has prompted calls to scrap the benefit for such Britons. It started with a comment from Matthew Elliot, Chief Executive of the Tax Payers’ Alliance, a pressure group formed six years ago to campaign for a low tax society.

He was widely quoted as saying, “To get the (British) deficit under control, cuts in unnecessary benefits are going to be essential. We should start with winter fuel payments to retirees in the Algarve.”

Then Maria Wardrobe, the director of the UK’s energy poverty campaign group National Energy Action, added “It would be much better if that money stayed in this country and helped deserving people who don’t get any help here.”

Last year, the British government shelled out £2.7 billion in winter fuel payments, although the Department of Work and Pensions could not say how much of that went abroad. UK newspapers, however, estimated it at £14 million, while Pensions Minister Angela Eagle said it was less than one per cent.

Under EU law the British government could be accused of discrimination if it failed to provide for its citizens who live in other member countries. The qualifying age will rise to 65 over the next ten years in line with changes to the British state pension age for women.

Unemployment up but spending down

As Spain’s unemployment rate hit his highest level for 12 years, ministers took action to tackle the huge shortfall in the country’s finances. Their move came after predictions Spain would be the only country in the G20 group to remain in recession throughout 2010.

Two sets of figures paint a grim picture of the country’s working population. The National Statistics Institute said that 35 per cent more people were out of work last year, compared with 2008, with an official total of 4.33 million. The rate at the end of 2009 stood at 18.83 per cent, which is five points and 1.2 million more job-seekers than 12 months earlier.

However, data from the EU was even worse. Seasonally-adjusted figures released by Eurostat put Spain’s year-end figure at 19.5 per cent, compared with an average 9.6 per cent amongst the 27 member countries and ten per cent in the Eurozone. Spain’s rate was beaten only by Latvia’s 22.8 per cent.

The EU added that amongst the under 25-year-olds in the EU countries, the rate is now 21.4 per cent compared with 16.9 per cent a year ago. The Eurostat report blamed inadequate training and the widespread use of short-term contracts. Spain’s youth unemployment rate is even worse, standing at around 40 per cent.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund predicted that, with negative growth of 0.6 per cent, Spain would remain the only member of the G20 group of countries to be in recession 12 months from now. The IMF also says that through 2011, Spain’s performance will fall behind major industrialised countries.

The cabinet met to discuss the figures and to debate the budget deficit which at the end of 2009 stood at 11.4 per cent, disappointingly higher that the government’s planned 9.5 per cent. Ministers approved plans to reduce public spending by €50billion with the intention of bringing the country back within the EU maximum of three per cent by 2013.

Economy Minister Elena Salgado said that cuts would be widespread but would exclude pensions, unemployment benefits, education and anti-terrorism measures, plus research and development. She admitted that the unemployment rate could top 20 per cent before beginning a recovery in the second half of this year.

Still in recession

Spain was the only major industrialised nation still in recession at the end of 2009.

Figures from the National Statistics Institute show that the country’s GDP dropped by 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of the year, compared with 0.3 per cent in the previous three months. The economy contracted 3.1 per cent throughout 2009 while output fell by 3.6 per cent.

ETA political leader
calls for
an end to terrorism

A prominent Basque separatist leader has called for ETA to cease its armed struggle. It is believed to be the first time that the group’s political wing has recommended action to its terrorist faction.

The Basque language newspaper, Berria, published comments from Rufino Etxeberria who is on bail from prison while charges of co-operation with ETA are under investigation. He said that efforts to bring Basque independence back to the forefront of the region’s politics would require a peace process which included the laying down of arms.

“We consider that the process must be achieved without violence,” he said, “which of course means that it must happen without any armed action by ETA.” Sr Etxeberria added that the political strategy of the group known as the abertzale, made up of patriotic separatist left-wingers, calls for the use of peaceful and democratic means to make progress. “This means no armed action by ETA,” he underlined.

Observers say the comments are an attempt to have a political party with ETA connections declared legal. After all their parties were declared illegal and therefore unable to field candidates in the regional elections last March, control of the Basque region changed hands for the first time in 30 years. The nationalists lost to the socialist PSOE party who formed an alliance with the right-wing Partido Popular.

ETA in Portugal

Police in Portugal who raided a house in the central tourist town of Óbidos say it was being used as an ETA bomb factory.

They discovered 1,500 hundred kilos of explosives, plus detonators, false matriculation plates and plans for attacks in Madrid and Cadíz. Investigators believe that the Basque terrorist group has set up bases in Portugal to prepare for strikes in Spain.

More than
one in three Brits may move home

A new survey suggests that 70 per cent of British residents in Europe are thinking about a move back to the UK while more than one in three in Spain are giving it serious consideration. The study, published by the foreign currency experts Moneycorp, shows that four out of ten Britons living in Spain are most concerned about losing their jobs here.

Spanish respondents who were polled in the autumn put job security at the top of their list of worries, as the country’s unemployment rate continued to soar, while the property sector, traditionally an important employer of Britons, continues to shed employees. Other concerns include the fall in local property prices and the weakness of the pound against the euro, which, with 28 per cent of British residents in Spain dependent in a UK pension, has become a major consideration.

Around 37 per cent said they were already looking into returning home and a similar number said they might have to consider the option in the future.

UK

More Britons were being held on drugs charges in Spain last year than in any other country. Last month, the UK Foreign Office said that over 200 British subjects were in Spanish jails on such offences at the end of last summer, with 150 more on other charges.

However, the FO is warning that many people hold unrealistic expectations of what diplomatic staff can do for those arrested abroad. A survey by ICM research found that 20 per cent of holidaymakers assume they can use British embassies and consulates as a “get out of jail free card”, in the belief that they can be rescued from Spanish jails or transferred to a facility in the UK.

The FO’s data shows the number of detentions worldwide on September 30 last year when there were 2,582 Britons being held in foreign prisons. In Spain, there were 357, of which 207 had been detained on charges related to drugs. The list was topped by the US where there were 669 British subjects imprisoned although only 141 of these were connected to drugs offences.

Britain’s Foreign Office and Commonwealth minister Chris Bryant warned that those travelling outside the UK should be “extremely wary” of being sucked into the drugs trade. “People often don’t realise that they will be sentenced in that country,” he said, adding, “sentencing can take many months, prison conditions can be very difficult to handle and sentences can be very long”.

The FO says it can only ensure Britons who are detained are put in touch with local lawyers and interpreters and will contact detainees within 24 hours to arrange a visit. The minister spelled out a clear message. “We can’t get people out of jail in other countries,” he said, “so if you don’t want to waste your life away in a tough foreign jail, be sensible and keep clean.”

Treatment costs

Andalucía’s health service is to tell patients the true costs of their free treatments.

Regional health minister María Jesús Montero said that, by telling people how much their operations or therapy had cost, abuse of the system could be reduced. She gave an assurance, however, that the plan was not a first step towards sharing medical costs between individuals and the state.

Spain-UK drugs ring smashed in joint
operation
 

Seven people have been arrested in a joint operation between Spanish and British police to smash a ring smuggling drugs into the UK. One person was detained in northern Spain and the others in southern England.

A statement from the Basque regional government explained that surveillance of the gang’s operation by National Police investigators began a fortnight earlier. Officers watched a lorry arrive at an industrial estate in the city of Vitoria where its driver met the occupants of a British-registered Audi car. They took the driver to the back of his vehicle where he stood blindfolded as the lorry was searched.

Both vehicles were then driven to another industrial estate where half a dozen British subjects are alleged to have loaded it with drugs. Leaving Vitoria, the lorry was driven to Santander taking a roundabout route which police say was designed to avoid known traffic control points. It was boarded onto a ferry bound for Poole, Dorset.

As soon as the vessel entered UK waters, members of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) searched the lorry and found 915 kilos of hashish in a hidden compartment. The vehicle’s six occupants were arrested as the ferry docked at Poole Harbour.

Simultaneously, National Police detained another suspect at the Vitoria industrial estate where a search produced a further 315 kilos of the drug.

Fewer
visitors

The number of foreign tourists arriving in Spain during 2009 was down 8.7 per cent on the previous year.

Year-end figures from the Ministry of Tourism showed that arrivals from the UK dropped 15.5 per cent while there were 11.3 per cent fewer Germans. However, the decline in numbers is seen to have tapered off as the year progressed.

Spain's Euro 2012 group

Spain was drawn alongside the Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein in the group stages of Euro 2012. Spain won the 2008 final and will start as defending champion in the first matches of Group I in September.

The finals will be hosted jointly by Poland and the Ukraine during June and July 2012.

Canaries quake
 

An earthquake registering four on the Richter scale hit the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

The epicentre was located ten miles off the coast of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The emergency services received numerous calls from worried residents but no injury or damage was reported.

Air Comet enquiry
 

The public prosecutor’s office at the High Court is opening an enquiry into possible fraud at Air Comet which failed last year.

The department contradicted a High Court judge who ruled there were insufficient grounds for such a move.

Prisoners
from Cuba

Spain is to accept five inmates from the US prison camp for terrorists in Cuba.

Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos confirmed that the government had volunteered to take the Guantanamo detainees in a move which it hoped would encourage other European countries to follow suit. He said the EU should agree that the camp was “an unacceptable and morally reprehensible anachronism”.

Not foreign enough

Spain is “not foreign enough” for some British tourists any more. An online survey published by the holiday company sunshine.co.uk suggests that UK holidaymakers are turning away from the country in favour of destinations elsewhere.

Reasons for the Costa clearout cited by respondents included the proliferation of British bars and restaurants, plus the danger of bumping into other Brits on holiday.

Murder suspects
 

Two teenagers have been arrested for the murder of a British businessman on Tenerife.

Peter Cockshutt, aged 71, was stabbed to death in his ransacked villa near Playa de las Americas. The 16- and 14-year-old boys, who are both of South American origin, have been held on suspicion of murder and robbery. The younger boy has been arrested for robbery five times before.

Fisherman rescued
 

Spain called on Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency for help to evacuate a wounded fisherman.

A helicopter from Culdrose was sent to the rescue of Albelo Primero who had a fishhook embedded in his eye on a boat 240 kilometres off the Isles of Scilly. He was flown to hospital in Cornwall where his condition was described as not life threatening.

Iberia link approved

Iberia shares rose 3.17 per cent after the US regulator gave antitrust approval to a new transatlantic tie-up.

The deal between American Airlines, BA, Finnair, Royal Jordanian and Iberia means that they can operate as a single entity on issues including the marketing and capacity of North Atlantic routes. Iberia meanwhile has suspended plans for a new domestic and medium-range airline.

Abuse
charges

Two brothers-in-law went on trial in Sevilla on charges that they abused each others’ daughters, then aged six and seven.

They are also alleged to have shared the girls with other friends who have since been detained. The two fathers have been in jail since 2008 as a preventative measure after the allegations came to light in horrifying descriptions from the children.

Easter flights threat

A row over the high levels of pay for air traffic controllers is threatening Easter flights.

Development Minister José Blanco wants to reduce their salaries to an average €200,000 but the controllers’ union APCAE has warned that the situation could become complicated. The union claims that any problems arising will be due to the minister’s inability to negotiate a new agreement on overtime.

Sky death enquiry criticised

A Nottingham coroner says the Spanish enquiry into the death of a British skydiver who fell 20,000 feet to the ground last June “wasn’t a very good investigation”.

Richard Taylor died at Skydive Madrid in Ocana after both his main and emergency chutes failed. Nigel Chapman said he had expected a report from an independent investigator and more than the three statements received.

Irish
ferry link

A new car ferry service between Ireland and Spain was expected to be confirmed last month.

There are anticipated to be two sailings from Cork to Spain, plus one to western France. Apart from helping holidaymakers, the development will benefit haulage contractors with savings from tolls, EU Environmental Taxes and CO2 emissions costs.