ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 21st April 2017
Corvera airport bidding process provisionally suspended..........but Murcia continues to enjoy a stunning spring
It will not have escaped the notice of anyone visiting the city of Murcia this week that while most of the rest of the Region returned to work on Monday after an Easter weekend of extremely warm weather the regional capital was decked out in its finest for another week of revelry during the Fiestas de Primavera.
After the celebration on Tuesday of the Bando de la Huerta, when the whole city takes a holiday and people dress in traditional costume to eat and drink with family and friends in the parks and gardens of the city, 279 council employees were ready for one of their longest nights of the year, and by midnight work to clean the parade route itself had already been completed. As the first early risers made their way to work at 6.00 in the morning the city centre and the “barracas” (open-air bar-restaurants) were in pristine condition, having yielded 87 tons of rubbish overnight.
Giant sardine parachutes into the centre of Murcia! As the two weeks of Easter and spring fiestas near their close in the city of Murcia the stage is now set for the grand finale of the Entierro de la Sardina on Saturday night, following the spectacular arrival by parachute of the sardine which will be ceremonially burnt in the Gran Vía just a few metres from the River Segura. It's a night of Murcian madness!
Tourism news
Bumper Easter as hotel occupancy reaches 97 per cent in the Mar Menor: as mentioned above, the Easter holidays just ended were a bumper period for tourism in the Costa Cálida, with the later timing of the festivities coinciding with a spell of warm, sunny weather, and nowhere were the benefits felt more than in the Mar Menor and La Manga, according to statistics produced by the regional government in Murcia.
In the Mar Menor area hotel occupancy reached 97%, reflecting not only the attractiveness of the Costa Cálida during the spring but also the degree to which fears over the water quality in the saltwater lagoon have been calmed, and the No Vacancies signs were also in evidence at hotels in Águilas. The mid-April weather was an important factor in reaching this level of activity, but the government also points to the increase in the number of people visiting Murcia from abroad.
Los Alcázares marina management contract put out to tender: the new concession is valid for 10 years, and this year the contracts at La Isleta (La Manga del Mar Menor) and Los Nietos are also up for renewal.
Triple cruise ship crush in Cartagena: the cruise ship season is underway right across Spain, and the city of Cartagena was swamped with visitors on Monday as three vessels docked simultaneously in port, bringing over 5,000 visitors and setting cash tills ringing throughout the city centre!
Planes and trains...
Corvera airport website launched: this week the website containing information for potential passengers and, perhaps more importantly at this stage, potential bidders for the management contract has been relaunched.
The regional government has concentrated mainly on supplying information which is designed to attract the interest of companies which could bid to run “the new airport of the Spanish Mediterranean”, which is equipped, we learn, with 25 check-in desks, 9 departure gates, a 3-kilometre runway and sufficient space on the apron for eleven standard-sized aircraft (or 6 large planes) and one jumbo jet.
However, the path of progress at Corvera has never been smooth and this week Aena has thrown another spanner in the works by entering a formal complaint to the tribunal which oversees the adjudication of public contracts for transport, requesting that the terms of the bid be investigated. Aena is in a difficult position, as although it is the natural contender to take over the management at Corvera, this would require the closure of San Javier, but should it agree to do this in advance, and then another company wins the bid, it could find itself with a dangerous competitor on the doorstep of Alicante. So this week the bidding process for Corvera has been provisionally suspended....read the full story
High-speed rail link to Murcia a step closer to reality: more progress towards the long-awaited arrival of the AVE high-speed rail network in the city of Murcia was announced this week, with reports that the national Minister for Development is on the point of approving the start of work on the underground sector of the line which will lead into and out of the Estación del Carmen in the south of the city. The intention is currently for the new line to come into operation in 2018.
Environmental news
Happy Earthday on Saturday!
Mar Menor green filter contract opened to bidders: the contract to construct the planned green filter near the mouth of the Rambla del Albujón was officially put out to tender on Thursday, while good news for the 
Mar Menor comes in forecasts that the lagoon is in good enough condition at present for the “green soup” effect which caused such concern in some areas last year not to make any reappearance this summer.
However, the evolution of conditions in the water also depends not only on the Mar Menor itself but also on the actions of human beings, there are warnings that any additional phosphates dumped into the water could lead to a repeat of last year’s problems.
Mazarrón set to cut Town Hall electricity bill by two thirds: low consumption street lighting is forecast to contribute to a saving of 800,000 euros per year by the Town Hall of Mazarron following initial investments of over 7 million euros.
Aguilas students take part in volunteer beach clean-up: the students were made aware of the importance of posidonia sea grass at the beaches of Aguilas and the rest of the Costa Cálida.
Murcia Town Hall installs vertical garden for Urban DNA project: the “floral sculpture” is made entirely from recyclable materials, and marks the beginning of a scheme by which the Plaza de Europa will become the first square in Murcia to be re-designed entirely by local residents, in this case those of the Santa Eulalia district.
The Mar Menor and Las Moreras in Mazarrón tighten up bird flu precautions: these steps have been taken in wetland areas in the light of the spread of the AH5 strain of the virus, after wild bird populations and poultry farms have been hit in Castilla y León and Catalunya in the north of the country.
Allergy misery this spring in Murcia: help is at hand: the relative heavy rain which fell in the Region of 
Murcia during the winter has led to the countryside being unusually green in many areas during the warm spring weather, but although this might be picturesque it also represents a higher than usual fire risk once the vegetation dries out, and is also the cause of considerable inconvenience for many allergy sufferers.
However, Murcia does have particularly good allergy departments in the regional hospitals, so if you are suffering, go to your local GP and talk about the problem, as preventative measures can be put in place to help sufferers and medication administered to help combat the problem: click to find out more!
Countdown under way for Murcia presidential investiture debate
No sooner had the long Easter weekend finished than the countdown resumed towards the investiture debate 
which will be held next week in the parliament of the Region of Murcia, where Fernando López Miras will be presenting himself as the PP candidate to succeed his party colleague Pedro Antonio Sánchez, who resigned on 4th April, as president of the regional government.
On Monday morning Sr López Miras officially registered his candidacy for the post, before informing members of the press that his aim is to continue the policies which have provided “such good results” over the first two years of the current legislature. However, it has to be remembered that his receiving the support of the regional parliament is not a foregone conclusion, as it will be necessary for him to re-negotiate the pact with the Ciudadanos party which allowed Pedro Antonio Sánchez to govern, and there are signs that this may not be as easy as it might sound.
On Tuesday the national Ciudadanos spokesperson Inés Arrimadas stated at a press conference that her party will not agree to a prolongation of the voting pact in Murcia unless a commitment is made to eliminate the current status of immunity from prosecution by lower courts which is enjoyed by those holding political office in the regional government.
Other items in the news
The history of metallurgy in Cartagena goes back 4500 years: a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the universities of Murcia, Cartagena and Madrid has compiled evidence which suggests that the smelting of metals in the Ensanche area of the city dates from around 2,300 years before the Roman occupation, which had previously been thought to mark the beginning of industrial mining and metalwork in the Region of Murcia.
Jumilla removes Francoist coats of arms from local schools: the symbol of Franco’s regime has been removed from the main building of the Mariano Suárez primary school, and the same step will be taken in the near future at the Arzobispo Lozano secondary school.
Kamikaze driver detained on the A-7 near Lorca: the driver had managed to zig-zag his way approximately half a kilometre along the wrong side of the motorway, causing an accident in which the female occupant of another car was injured.Jumilla farmer dies under his overturned tractor: there have been at least three tractor deaths in Murcia so far this year.
8 arrested after 108 thefts from foreign tourists at A-7 motorway service areas: numerous valuables and over 10,000 euros’ worth of cash were recovered following thefts in Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Tarragona.
Sales up by 9.9 per cent in February: Spain’s notaries report that across the country the number of 
residential properties changing hands during February was 38,176, representing an increase of 9.9% over the figure for the same month in 2016 despite the fact that last year there was one more working day during the month. The notaries’ sales figures have been rising steadily since early 2014, and this latest result means that there have now been increases in all of the last eight months.
Spanish national news
Political corruption and Catalan independence grab the headlines again
While the city of Murcia celebrated the end of Easter by immediately beginning another week of fiestas, the rest of Spain returned to something resembling normality on Monday and Tuesday, with various of the issues occupying the headlines being all too familiar.
Among them were more stories related to alleged political corruption, and after the news that national President Mariano Rajoy will be called to give evidence in relation to the alleged illegal financing of his PP party came the arrest of a former president of the regional government of Madrid on various charges 
including the misappropriation of public funds. This coincided with the launch of a controversial anti-corruption campaign by the Podemos party, featuring a “Corrupto-Bus” coach decorated with the faces of politicians who the group believe to have benefitted improperly from having held office in recent years.
Within hours, an image of the newly arrested ex-president had been added to the Corrupto-bus as a "special guest" and went viral on Twitter.
Elsewhere, Theresa May’s decision to call a surprise general election in the UK could result in the King of Spain’s official State visit to London being cancelled again, the government of Catalunya remains hell-bent on holding an independence referendum before the year is out, and away from politics a Mallorca cave diver was rescued after a 60-hour ordeal.
On the lighter side, one of the most surreal bank robberies in recent times grabbed the headlines in Cádiz, where the thief counted out 500 euros in notes before leaving far more in the till!
Scroll below for more stories in the Spanish news this week...
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