There’s great news for foreign residents with private health insurance because work will begin this month on the construction of a large private hospital in Motril. The hospital, which has a building schedule of 18 months, will attend to the medical needs of private patients.

The hospital, which will be very similar to the Hospital La Inmaculada in Granada, will be situated on the site of the old Fábrica San Fernando. This is an excellent location, as it puts the projected hospital right next to the autovía exit, once this coastal highway is finished.

The installations will work alongside Motril’s Santa Ana, but will provide some services that have only been available in the capital of the province up until now.

You would be wrong to think that that this new hospital in Motril will only benefit those patients that have their own private insurance policy, because it will work with the Junta, offering its installations to help with Santa Ana’s waiting lists.

As yet, the name of the hospital is not known, but what is known is the name of the director, Dr Manuel Serrano, who professes a healthy respect for the Santa Ana public hospital.

Amongst the new services that will be on offer for the first time on the Costa Granadina are laser-accelerated-proton radiotherapy and fertility assistance. The hospital will take on more facilities until it reaches its projected full strength, with a medical staff of 30 doctors.

Furthermore, next to the hospital there will be a residency for people of advanced age, providing temporary accommodation with its projected 39 rooms (76 residents). The day care-centre will have a dining room, swimming pool, games room, library and a social assistant.

Lastly, the number of foreigners that come to the area for health treatment is growing steadily; so far this year alone, Santa Ana has dealt with 10,000 foreign residents or visitors.

Although I had no intention of starting off the Almuñécar Section with an account of the rubbish-collection strike, the first item to be recounted does however, deal with rubbish bins.

How would you like to come to Almuñécar in August to occupy your holiday villa, after one year of absence, and find that the Town Hall had decided to park 33 rubbish-collection containers on your property? Not chuffed, obviously. (For our non-native English speakers, ‘chuffed,’ by the way, is British slang for ‘happy.’) So you can feel for the house owners in this situation – although you might gleefully gloat because of the victims’ having missed the rubbish strike in July, bless them…

But needles-in-dolls apart, on with the plot! These are the dozens of refuse-recycling hoppers that were shifted out of the centre of town in April and piled up on the outskirts for hygiene purposes and for obliging, sadistically, the suffering townsfolk of Almuñécar to use the N-340, with its kilometric traffic jams, perhaps. Nobody would argue that the N-340 is about as spirit-lifting as a Leonard Cohen concert, but we will get onto the traffic jams brief, after you’ve had a chance to kick your shoes off and settle into an armchair.

“We don’t mind so much that the containers, themselves, are on our land, but it’s the litter that comes with them”, they explained. Before you raise your eyebrows and roll your eyes at this comment, the couple go on to explain, “People come by here and leave their mess outside the containers, which is turning the place into a pigsty.”

They first went to the Local Police with their complaint – the reckless fools! Receiving, surprisingly, no joy, they then approached the Guardia Civil to report the Town Hall because the only explanation that the family had received from the Dark Palace of Bureaucratic Skulduggery (the Town Hall; not the Guardia Civil!) was that they had not realised that it was private property – but no attempt has been made to rectify the situation.

The controversial housing estate in San Sebastian, Laderas de Castillar, is back in the news again. You might remember that these VPO’s (council subsidised cheap housing for low-wage-earning young couples) were declared illegal as they had been built on land designated for industrial use; not housing. The Town Hall had continued building these houses regardless of the illegality of the situation, knowingly rallying the prospective owners behind them. Finally, when the housing was virtually complete, 40-odd families decided to squat in the houses that corresponded to them; if that is not a contradiction in terms? In the meantime, the legal wheels revolved creakingly and predictably slowly.

Months passed and the inhabitants were probably expecting that they had got away with this fait accompli, knowing that throwing families onto the streets is not good for politics. But they hadn’t accounted for the electricity and water suppliers; i.e., Aguas y Servicios and Endesa/Sevillana. As some illegal-house owners have discovered, unless you have a First Occupation Certificate, the utility companies will not connect you up to their services… and the Lads at Laderas certainly do not have that sneakily evasive piece of paper... The water and electricity that they have been using until now belongs to the construction phase, acquired by the building company to provisionally service the work site.

Basically, Aquas y Servicios has informed the development company, El Cercado de Santa Cruz that the provisional supply was getting the chop. The development company, in turn, informed the house occupiers. The company, by the way, is not short of a bob or two (money), as they have just inaugurated Almuñécar’s only five-star, luxury hotel and health spa, but this does not mean that they do much about the impending doom – they can’t buy legality (Hmmm…)

Under any other circumstances, to see the majority of Almuñécar’s political parties to be of accord in a council meeting would be something to write home about, but on this occasion, it would have had any sane person running off to the nearest travel agency, in search of somewhere else to live. As if in shame, the last point on the agenda to be put to vote was not read out aloud – it was only mentioned by name. The councillors for the ruling party under Benny, and those belonging to both opposition parties raised their hand to deliver a ‘yes’ vote.

Our illustrious council had just voted almost unanimously in favour of paying themselves handsome wages and allowances.

The PSOE and PP, set aside their differences with the Mayor’s party, awarding it nine full-time paid councillor salaries, plus one for the party secretary and salaries for four advisors. This agreement left the two smaller opposition parties with no such salaries for their single councillors. What appears to be a further reprisal has been that IU, whose councillor, Iván Sánchez spoke out strongly against the Mayor at the voting-in ceremony, has been given an office on the other side of town, and not in the Town Hall, along with the other political parties. It is worth pointing out that when Andrés Palacios defected from the PP and went solo, supporting the Mayor’s party, there was no difficulty in finding him an office to himself on the third floor of the town-hall building.

Of course, both the PP and the PSOE get their share of salaried posts in the council too, which leaves the average municipal tax payer thinking where the hell is the money going to come from to pay these numerous and generous salaries?

Finally, on the 24th of last month, both the PSOE and IU parties complained that the Governing Council had decided to open a new high-position post for ‘the interrelation programme of the PGOU revision.’ The aspirant would land himself a juicy salary of 46,600 euros. Firstly, according to both parties, the Town Hall does not have either the competence or the funds to create such a post. Secondly, they both claim that it is a back-door operation to give the Mayor’s right-hand man, Sr. Pavesios, a comfy income. The PSOE and IU point out that as the examining board will be made up of party colleagues, it will be a foregone conclusion that Sr. Pavesios will land the job.

You’re probably waiting for me to cover the strike, but I’ve got lots of other things to mention first… However, I will offer you this strike-related gem… At the beginning of August it was announced in the newspapers that somebody in Almuñécar had won himself the juicy sum of 444,000 euros, by pulling in one of the seven, second prizes in the Euro Millones Lottery! As is habitual in these cases the winners (two people shared a ticket) kept quiet! Yes, you’ve guessed it: the two winners were employees of the cleaning company that had gone on strike. Rubbish, you say! But it’s true. One minute they are on strike for a decent wage, and then the next, they’re whacking back the caviar! Joaquín Ligero Pálamo and Vito Márquez, besides being the crew of one of the small fleet of refuse-collection lorries belonging to Sistemas Integrales de Limpieza El Mirlo, have also doggedly played the lottery for the last eleven years, religiously filling in the coupons each week. Joaquín was checking out the results on the TV teletext, when he saw that his numbers coincided with one of the winning combinations, so he pointed it out to his wife – the reckless fool! She, like many Spaniards, immediately tried working out 444,000 euros in real money; i.e., pesetas. It’s a bitch of a number to translate into pesetas, so they just decided that it was quite a lot of money and left it at that. She burst out crying and he went to the bathroom to splash his face. Well, Joaquín might have trouble working it out in pesetas but there is another way to work out what that much money is really equivalent to: 30 years working at his present monthly salary rate.

There was a bit of a panic when thick black smoke started pouring out from the business premises underneath the Paseo del Altillo. The culprit was the large diesel, electricity generator, which is situated to the right of the steps that lead down to the lower Paseo. Fortunately, this happened at five in the afternoon, which - it being high summer - meant that the streets were practically deserted. Extensive damage, it is rumoured, was caused to the electric cabling of the new bars, etc, under the Paseo.

The question is, if it appears to be the case, is this whole Altillo installation still running on a generator, instead of mains supply? I know that for the official inauguration of the Paseo del Altillo the Town Hall had to resort to a large generator, because Endesa/Sevillana was not happy about the legality of the installations, but, quite frankly, I thought that this had long been sorted out. I will have to look into this for the next issue.

Many of you might be thinking that it was very unusual for that spot of rainfall around mid August – and it was, but there is a very good explanation why it occurred: David Darby and family arrived in Almuñécar from the UK the previous evening to enjoy a spot of guaranteed sun…

A gang of thirteen youths was arrested, after having beaten up two Rumanians. The youths, all aged between 15 and 20, had chased after and beaten the hell out of the two Rumanians, for brushing by the girlfriend of one of their number. It all started when an 18-year-old Almuñequero accused a young lad of ‘brushing against his girlfriend,’ following this accusation up with a punch. The young Rumanian, seeing himself surrounded by the group and fearing the worst, ran off, taking refuge in a shop where his father worked.

Seeing the mob, both the father and the boy tried to flee. The father told his son to escape whilst he tried to draw the attention of the mob. The plan worked too well because they caught up with the father in the Calle Cariñena, where they set about him with sticks, bottles and their boots. They continued kicking the hell out of him, long after he lost consciousness, and they only desisted when the Guardia Civil arrived. The mob scattered. The father was rushed to Motril hospital, where he required 38 stitches to the head, and where he was kept under observation.

The police arrested six of the group on the 27th July, and the rest on the 30th. Five of their number had been arrested several months back for doing the same to a Moroccan lad.

According to the Guardia Civil, several such incidents have occurred, usually breaking out in the bars under the Paseo del Altillo, with the victims always being a young foreigner.

Boy has this place changed! Yet another allegedly illegal urbanización has cropped up; this time they have built on a barranco; i.e., a storm-water gully, turning this natural and necessary dry watercourse into part of their garden. This, however, has not stopped the Town Hall issuing the First Occupation Certificate for the Urbanización Arroyo Marinos, which is near the Barrio de los Marinos, close to Chinasol. The buildings are being investigated by higher authorities. It doesn’t often rain here, but when it does, it soon becomes apparent how these rugged dry watercourses were formed. Will they ever learn?

Local neighbours commented, “Before they (Coreal) came along and built this shockingly ugly monstrosity, this was one of the most pleasant areas of Almuñécar: quality individual houses; a small oasis of unspoilt countryside and the sounds of nature and wildlife. The official line of the Town of Almuñécar is that they see the economic future of the town in quality tourism. But you have to wonder what classification of “quality” tourism is going to be attracted to a depressing concrete jungle such as Arroyo Marinos. The fact that the Town Hall has permitted this staggeringly dense and inappropriately situated construction project reinforces the clear impression that Almuñécar has seriously lost its way as a quality tourism destination.”

Sardines ahoy! Bathers were amazed to see a huge invasion of dead sardines approaching the beach – at least it made a nice change from jellyfish. Some bathers scooped them up to whisk them home for lunch – bloody lunatics; I mean you have to be, don’t you, to eat washed up dead fish! Anyway, the municipal cleaning craft were quickly out trying to clean San Cristóbal Beach.

What had apparently happened was that a fishing boat had thrown whole boxes of them overboard. Although some speculated that it was to push the price up in Motril Port, this is hardly likely because there are so many sardines of the local variety around this year. The discarded fish were very similar to local sardines but are ones that swordfish fishermen use for bait. Anyway, either way, it is completely illegal.

The controversial gasoline station underneath the eastern stand of the municipal stadium has advanced, as can be seen in the photo, despite its clear illegality. The Mayor on the 27th March sent a letter to the Consejería de Obras Públicas that ‘Not within the area of the municipal sports stadium, nor under the stands, are the installations of a service station foreseen at all.” Hmmm… However, the Town Hall had already filed a favourable report for such facilities in the Calle Khan Jounes. Now on that street, which is the one that runs behind the stadium, there are only two buildings: the stadium and the medical centre, and there sure as hell is not a gas station going up next to the medical centre… So, there’s another question for the Mayor in our next interview with him.

As if a prelude for worse things to come, on the 1st of July, the beach below Las Gondolas had to be hurriedly closed off because the sewage pump there had vomited vast amounts of fetid water onto the beach. Everybody was stunned. On the very first day of an anxiously awaited summer season the town loses one of its beaches and the news rockets through the province. Aguas y Servicios (privately own municipal waterboard) blamed the Junta de Andalucía and the Junta blamed the Aguas y Servicios … of course, but in the meantime, whilst these two entities were throwing the proverbial muck at each other, the real stuff was sunbathing on the beach.

Everybody knows that the area stinks around Las Gondolas, especially in the summer, and this has been the case ever since the sewage collection and pumping station was placed there, to pump Almuñécar’s sewage up to the EDAR (sewage treatment plant), which is at the mouth of the Barranco de Ítrabo. The design and maintenance of the pumping facilities is absolute crap – no pun intended.

Anyway, the incident is being investigated by the provincial office of the Department of the Environment. Should there be a fine imposed, guess who the suckers are that will end up paying the bill…

Benny is a happy bunny – he’s been acquitted and now does not have to fork out literally millions from his own pocket over the Tropical Fruits Case. The provincial court acquitted the Mayor from a charge of ‘negligence in the running of the Tropical Fruits Company’, of which the Town Hall held the major part (83,17%), using public money. This decision throws out the earlier decision by a Motril court that found him guilty.

This latest judicial decision has left everybody flabbergasted – accept for the Benny supporters, that is. One of the reasons that the judge acquitted Benny was that the Town Hall had not provided the books for examination, which would have shown clearly why it went bust. Now, as Sr. Benavides is the accused, it is hardly likely that his town hall would provide evidence that condemned him. You see, the charge was originally brought by the Town Hall under another mayor, Sr Rodríguez, but since then, we have had Benny in charge. Therefore, you get the ridiculous situation that the party that brought the case against the accused is now controlled by the accused himself – how do you expect him to provide evidence against himself?

And to turn the ridiculous into the totally absurd, the company account books, which had been deposited in municipal care, have mysteriously disappeared. So, the public prosecutor had to bring a case without enough evidence, and the judge decided that there wasn’t enough available proof to bring about a conviction; hence the acquittal.

Yet, Benny is not totally in the clear for two reasons: firstly because there is an appeal in process against this latest judicial decision, and secondly, Benny has been charged under penal law (not civil law, as is the case of the Tropical Fruits Case) for fraudulent bankruptcy. A tactical victory for Benny, then, but not a strategic one.

Earlier on in this section, we talked about the squatters in the Laderas de Castillar in San Sebastian, and how they were going to lose their temporary electricity supply… Well since my having written the article, some more news has cropped up on the subject. As if the horrendous tailbacks on the main road between La Herradura and Torrenueva (just past Motril) weren’t bad enough, especially between the Costa Banana traffic lights and the Taramay ones, these 60 families thought that it was a wonderful idea to cut the freaking road just opposite the gasoline station for around half an hour! Do they really expect to get any sympathy that way? Anyway, with the constant standstill and inching forward, I doubt that the hapless drivers realised that lunatics had cut the road, armed with banners. I mean, they can bloody well camp on the damned road once the autovía is finished.

Civic Centre still unfinished, 10 months after opening: air conditioning that hasn’t been working, with pensioners and public meeting attendees sweltering during the hot summer months; the auditorium floor boards buckling; lifts only recently installed but still not operational; a library that doesn’t have an effective booking system in place; lack of power points, curtains and amazingly, valuable books left stacked up on the floor.

These are just few of the complaints to be heard from visitors to this important building during the summer. With such a hefty investment and a prominent monument for Mayor Benavides during the election campaign this year, I would have thought that all these months later, such problems would have been sorted out. Not so. I’ve been told that watering the plants in the building’s plaza has led to humidity causing damage within the large auditorium. The disabled and those who find it difficult to climb the many stairs still haven’t been able to access the library and that’s because even though the elevators have finally been introduced during the past few weeks, these haven’t yet been approved by the Health and Safety equivalent here in Spain.

Of course, once you did manage to get to the third floor to visit the general library, you wouldn’t be entirely impressed with what you saw. Despite all the valiant efforts of Ann Maxfield and other hard-working supporters of the English library, these books remain in a corner of the library, piled up on the floor. Maria Victoria’s team still stand by the fact that they ordered shelves way back in February, but these haven’t yet materialised, even though there are many who remain actively interested in using these resources.

I have had a request by people on the library team that perhaps anyone with centrally based premises in La Herradura might ‘volunteer’ some space, so that at least some of the books might continue to be viewed, borrowed and enjoyed. Anyone who feels they could help, please contact Ann Maxfield on 958 64 00 69.

If you’re looking for overnight and day trips in this part of the world, but not sure where to start because your language skills are limited, don’t despair. Some clever local people have used their experience and contacts to sort out some special deals from as little as € 20. It’s your chance to explore Seville, Jerez and Gibraltar, just to name a few. You can contact Costa Tropical Clubs through Sean Brown on telephone 958 640 948 or e-mail him on brownseasand@terra.es to find out more.

So it’s not just Granadinos that visit, as the President of the Catalán Government, José Montilla, came to spend his summer holidays in La Herradura. In the tradition of other high profile politicians such as Prime Minister, José Luis Zapatero, Sr. Montilla was enjoying a break in this beautiful part of the country, when he conceded an interview with Ideal, promoting the region of Cataluña and the contribution that it makes to the rest of Spain.

Our own Alison from Creative Cuisine appears in Living in the Sun, as this successful BBC programme is filmed in this popular local bakery. We all want to be in pictures and new international envoy, Alison, made sure that she got baking with the presenter of this well-known TV series, Kristian Digby. They then carried the sweet result of their efforts off to local restaurant Las Maravillas, where a family celebration was taking place. Showing other parts of our humble village to Britain as a typical Spanish seaside spot... Now that’s what I call ‘taking the cake’!

Madeleine Effect hits La Herradura, as a young girl and her 4-year-old female cousin, walking up Rambla del Espinar are threatened by driver. It was midday during the summer holidays when a 13-year old was taking her usual route home through the village and an unkempt man with a beard allegedly drove up behind the girls and yelled “Give me the little girl.” Thinking swiftly, the older girl immediately picked up the cousin in her arms and dashed up the stairs to a neighbour’s house. There were no other witnesses, but it wasn’t long before the story had spread throughout the village and become distorted to include a tale of several men with additional children and greater distances, doubtlessly fuelled by the recent tragic disappearance of Madeleine Mc Cann.

The Guardia Civil concluded, nonetheless, that there was no concrete evidence to warrant further investigation. Certainly, there are a greater number of strangers in the village during the summer and we should take extra care. However, even during the rest of the year, can we truly afford to relax so much as to assume that crime never enters this part of the world?

La Herradura Bay Crossing cancelled due to rough seas and strong winds. Sadly the 12th annual competition for swimmers, tackling the two-kilometre distance was not to be this year, with the weather conspiring against us. Better luck next year!

The connection road between Cuesta del Marchante and San Antonio has been approved. This new route (parallel to the N-340) will mean that motorists don’t have to take the long way around La Herradura, or indeed cross the dual carriage way illegally. This has been made possible by the Town Hall acquiring land from the surrounding farmland (almost 3,000 square metres in total) to carry out the project.

La Herradura autovía exit was without lighting for several weeks during the summer because of cables being stolen and streetlights being vandalised. The subsequent darkness may have been easier on the eyes for local homes, but pretty disastrous for anyone attempting to leave the autovía at La Herradura. Several accidents are known to be the consequence of insufficient lighting at the exit.

Certamen de Andrés Segovia is just around the corner. Don’t forget to enter the dates in you diary as 19th – 24th November with more information about the history of this amazing artist within next month’s issue.

One thousand Herradureños sign the petition for a full-time doctor in the village, as residents have been waiting almost twelve months for a response from the Andaluz Health Authority for improved medical coverage here. With a permanent population nudging 5,000, there’s no doubt that the demand for greater support has increased as well. Doctor María Luz, who only works part time here, just isn’t sufficient to cover the residents, let alone the many visitors that descend on the village during the summer. Spokesperson, Antonio Corral Ruiz, has approached the regional health authority (SAS), whose mission it is to guarantee health care to all citizens of Andalucía, to push for the necessary medical coverage.

As one of the residents remarked, although we appreciate the effort that the medical professionals are making here, there’s also a need to bring in someone on the administration side, to sort out appointments, timetables and eliminate the chaos that seems to characterise what system exists. Aside from these basic requirements, inhabitants of La Herradura (particularly with the spate of traffic accidents that have occurred over the summer) continue to request an ambulance service, to solve the problem of having to wait for emergency services to arrive from Almuñécar or Motril during what could be precious moments.

La Herradura’s parish church receives proceeds from a book. José Luis Merino Boves, theatre director, has written a novel entitled La Aventura de Jesús llamado El Cristo. The presentation of the book was well received, as the author observed that, “The work gives a distinct interpretation on the life of Christ, focusing on a personal perspective.”

You don’t need to be religious to enjoy this, just take some time out to share in the 100th anniversary of La Herradura’s church, San José. One of the events that promises this year to be even bigger than ever is the procession of the throne (effigy) of the Virgin Mary through to the area of Las Maravillas (hosted in the zone’s brand-spanking-new plaza), nestled above the village centre. Starting from 8pm on the 16th September, you’ll discover that this special occasion doesn’t stop with the procession, but you can participate in a pretty lively local tradition – and just when you thought you couldn’t manage yet another fiesta, sí que puedes!

Three buses block the entrance to the village and cause a traffic-jam four-kilometres long. Ok – so it’s something we get used to every weekend in the summer, but not when so much of it appeared to be centred on the entrance to La Herradura. The problem? Well, it must have been pretty serious, as an ambulance arrived. Oh no – don’t be distracted; this vehicle was just trying to make its way through the blocked entrance off the N-340. Trying to be a good citizen (plus allow his passengers to disembark) one of the drivers of the three buses located in the area edged forward, successfully managing to prevent any traffic from moving out of the village towards either Almuñécar or Málaga. Complete chaos (what else could you expect at this time of year?), with vehicles trapped within the village, only able to take routes out through the one way system in Camino Real – where there’s barely enough width in the road to get a car through, let alone any major vehicle – or if you’re patient enough, to take the two-kilometre round trip via the Punta de la Mona. With an ever-increasing population, it really does highlight the need to provide either additional exit points, or clearer signposting that indicates preferred routes for all types of vehicles, perhaps even with a warning when things are getting ‘sticky’ (difficult) ahead. Maybe all three – just wake me up when it’s over…

The enthusiastic group at Martin and Sue’s Blue Lagoon did a brilliant job raising a total of € 155 at the charity night in July. With generous contributions from local businesses and individuals, the proceeds of this successful night were welcomed by that worthwhile charity AECC (Asociación Españóla Contra Cancer).

And as for what’s coming up next at the Blue Lagoon, you should be aware that they will be showing all major football matches throughout the entire season. Get ready for some serious armchair sports throughout the autumn!

The Home of Sports in La Herradura, The Anchor is pleased to let you know about a new development as they now have ‘Setanta Sports,’ which will be in place just in time for the England Euro 2008 qualifiers and Rugby World Cup, which will obviously be renamed the ‘Australian Cup’ at the right moment (sorry, is my bias showing?).

Make sure that you check the El Ancla board for more details about the many great sporting delights in store, including the Manchester United versus Chelsea Premiership on Sunday 23rd September with kick-off at 5pm. Jean, Katie and Jonathan (ok, well, perhaps not Katie) are also pleased about the very busy August they’ve had on the food front, with their new breakfasts going down a treat.

Naturally, for any lunches or dinners, it’s always advisable to book your table, so make sure you call on 958 64 04 17 so as to avoid disappointment. The whole team is definitely looking forward to seeing the regulars back, when hopefully we’ll all be able to park comfortably again!

The Hideaway offers more than just the occasional pack of nuts, as Darren and Jenette want to remind you that you can enjoy light snacks, sizeable breakfasts and scrumptious afternoon teas there. You also need to keep an eye out for the latest sporting treats on offer, with their board updated on a weekly basis. The cheerful pair has also informed me that they’ll also be taking a break from the end of the month. Don’t fear; it’s not forever, just for a few well deserved days from Saturday 29th September through to Friday 5th October, when they’ll be back with a vengeance, with lots to look forward to in the autumn.

A reminder from Sunlounge about Halloween, when Leanne will be back in full-force, party mode, after the long, hot summer. Don’t forget to mark your calendar with this now must-do annual event!

Twelve hotels in Salobreña have recently handed in a letter to the Salobreña Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) complaining about all the building works going on over the holiday periods in the town (this includes the Christmas and Easter breaks and, most importantly, the summer holiday season). The hotels say their clients are being disturbed by all the noise and inconvenience caused by the building works and are getting royally miffed. I think we can safely say that it is not only the hotel’s clientele that are well and truly fed up, but all the residents and holidaymakers living or staying elsewhere in the town. The hotels want a new law during holiday periods to stop building works, so that they have an opportunity to positively promote tourism in the town. The hotel owners add that the noise and dust are unbearable and often guests cannot get to the front door to drop off suitcases due to roadblocks and diversions. Hotel guests are being woken up at the crack of dawn by drills and they can’t have a rest which, quite frankly, is what a holiday is all about.

As we all know, Salobreña is a small town with narrow streets and packed tight with houses so building works are highly noticeable and are a constant and everyday nuisance to everyone. It is a great pity that the hoteliers didn’t extend this complaint to include other businesses in the town and to the residents as it would, no doubt, have had far more impact on the Salobreña administration that will most probably put this complaint straight into the file marked ‘waste bin’.

An explosive situation developed recently in Molvízar. A town local had purchased a property and was in the process of renovating it. On clearing out the bottom of a cupboard, he found a grenade dating back to the Spanish Civil War era (most probably well passed its ‘use-by’ date then) which the previous owner, recently deceased, had obviously forgotten about (or perhaps was keeping just in case his neighbour denounced him for something or other). The Guardia Civil in Salobreña were quickly called to the scene and carefully removed the grenade and took it to a specially designated wasteland area near Granada for detonation. Must have been an interesting drive! What I don’t understand was the necessity to drive all the way to Granada with live and unstable ammunition for safe disposal? I would have thought that there are plenty of old houses in the general vicinity of Molvízar that could do with a quick and cheap form of renovation? Instructions: place said grenade into the centre of a property and detonate. Bingo, one house cleared and ready for a rebuild! On a serious note, the Guardia Civil would like anyone who finds anything similar in their houses to let them know immediately.

Diogenes’ syndrome is characterized by marked self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal and hoarding of rubbish (syllogomania). The syndrome has been reported to occur in association with a wide variety of psychiatric conditions. This was the case of a 48-year-old woman in Salobreña, who was recently found dead in her house near the Hostal Mari Teri. The woman, who lived on her own, had been denounced many times in the past by her neighbours for the bad smells coming from her house. Council workers had had to visit her on several occasions to remove the extremely smelly rubbish that she had been accumulating. At the height of the recent hot weather, her next-door neighbours noticed that she hadn’t appeared for several days and once again complained about the bad smell. Police made the decision to break into her house whereupon they found her body. Cause of death is unknown but considering the conditions she lived in, and also given the hot and humid weather, she may well have contributed to her own demise.

Locals in Salobreña are up in arms and have complained to the Salobreña Ayuntamiento about the dirty state of the streets, the bad smells and general untidiness in the town. Residents are complaining that not enough is being done to keep the town clean. Why aren’t the authorities doing something about it, they ask? How about we stop right here and start looking at who is to blame for all the mess?

Let’s start with dog owners who let their dogs roam the streets daily, especially in the old town, where dogs are free to crap on pathways, stairways and any other paved open space. Moving on swiftly to local residents who don’t dispose of their rubbish in the appropriate places, leaving bags at ground level for the roaming animal population to rummage through, snack on and distribute the contents into the streets.

Over the past six months or so, the smaller green wheelie bins seem to have been disappearing from various rubbish collection points across the old town. On a positive note this does create the odd extra parking space but increases the rubbish left out on the streets. Perhaps the local residents need to become more pro-active and take more responsibility themselves in helping to keep the town clean and tidy before blaming others for what they have, in the first place, created.

The Turístico-Hostelero plan, better known to us perhaps as the THI development proposal in the La Guardia area between Salobreña and La Caleta, has been well and truly shunted into the side rails … for the time being. The Seaside Gazette spoke to Manuel Pérez Cobos, Head of the Obras y Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento del Salobreña (works and urban department in Salobreña) who confirmed that Pedro Benzal from the Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía (cultural department) has blocked the accepted proposal and licences for the development of four beach hotels in La Guardia.

If you listen carefully across Salobreña you can probably hear a few prospective developers gnashing their teeth and stamping their feet at this moment in time at the prospect of losing out on all the shed loads of money that they should soon have been enjoying! Of course, the developers will be appealing against this sudden decision as this project was in an advanced stage and had been given the go ahead as far back as 2001. In fact, this plan is so ‘advanced’ that all we could ascertain in our conversation with Manuel Pérez Cobos, was that there were plans for the ‘space’ these projects would take up, that they would be no more that ‘three-storey buildings’ and with ‘plenty of green areas’ retained.

When we enquired as to how many bedrooms each hotel would have or what would happen to the beach area, no details are available. This decision from the Junta de Andalucía ‘to protect the surrounds of the castle of Salobreña’ has a very important knock on effect for those residents of Salobreña that live in the old town next to the castle walls. In a nutshell, your houses are now protected but any future works will not be allowed. With luck, this appeal will run for years and we can all enjoy the lush green scenery next to the sea around La Guardia for a long while yet. Who needs four more hotels that will be busy in the summer months and empty or closed during the winter months?

Cota 200. The markers for the new stretch of the autovía are now being staked out in the hills above Salobreña and most noticeably on the Cota 200, which runs from the Monte de Los Almendros all the way to Molvízar. While we were talking with Manuel Pérez Cobos, (See above) we asked him what would be happening on this stretch of road between the Monte and Molvízar once construction begins. He has confirmed that this road will remain ‘usable’ during the construction and that there is going to be a tunnel that crosses this area. Time to get out the 4x4’s perhaps!

The village of Ítrabo is soon to get a new road linking it with Salobreña and Taramay. This will come as a welcome relief for the villagers who have, up to now, had to go the long way round, or take a direct but 20-minute journey on a dirt track. The new road is being built by a promoter of a development at the Salobreña/Taramay end but still within the Itrabo area and is a condition for building approval laid down by the ítrabo Ayuntamiento. People along the route are already receiving compensation for the small pieces of land they are losing to the road and it is hoped that work will commence shortly.

The ‘aah’ factor. Josefa (111 years), a local of Salobreña, has recently been reunited with her sister Antonia (97 years) living in Vicar, near Almería. They hadn’t known of each other’s whereabouts for 68 years after they were separated during the Civil War. The siblings had a very emotional reunion in which Josefa’s first words to her long-lost sister were “I thought you were dead!”

The International Club of Salobreña will be returning from its summer break with a Social Meeting on Wednesday 19th September at 11 am at the Hotel Salobreña. They look forward to greeting not only existing members, back from their summer break, but also people who would like to become new members. The purpose of the club is to foster friendship, as well as gaining exposure and an understanding of the culture of the community in which we live. Although the club’s name says ‘’of Salobreña,’ their members stretch from Almuñécar to Motril, Lecrín Valley/Alpujarra to the coast, so everyone is welcome.

The club meets throughout the year on Wednesdays (with July/August and Christmas breaks). Activities are varied ranging from guided walks through the countryside, tours of local historical places, tapas tours in Granada to purely social meetings (including book/CD/DVD swaps) at Hotel Salobreña.

Subscriptions for the remainder of 2007 are €5 per person. So, if you’re interested in meeting a good group of people and experiencing some of the cultural and social activities the area has to offer, go along to the meeting on the 19th. For more information email: icsalobrena@hotmail.com or call Arlene 666 76 34 78. A full list of upcoming activities will be posted at the Salobreña Tourist Office, Hotel Salobreña and Cyber Surfer Internet Cafe on the Salobreña seafront across from El Peñon. Please contact me by email if you have any news for the next issue: heloise@seasidegazette.es