ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 6th May 2016

Record blue flags for Murcia, Brits spent 22 million euros in Murcia during March and more news about Corvera

Corvera airport and tourism news

The members of the regional government committee which is investigating the management of the unopened Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera visited the terminal building and control tower on Tuesday morning, and expressed different opinions concerning the facilities depending to a large extent, it seems, on which political party they represent.

Óscar Urralburu of Podemos, who chairs the committee, maintains that “the Region has a problem” and bemoans the fact that the only thing flying out of the airport is money, but on the other hand the PP, which has been in power in the regional government of Murcia since 1995, maintains that the airport is in “impeccable condition” (this time in the words of Patricia Fernández), and that a route map towards its opening is being followed rigorously. 

The government committee visitors were followed at Corvera by three of the companies which are weighing up the possibility of tabling a bid for the new management contract which will soon be put out to tender.

The companies concerned are the Spanish infrastructure management giant Acciona, SNC Lavelin from Canada (the company which has taken on the management of the new airport in Castellón in the north of the Comunidad Valenciana) and the Rigby Group, a British company which has already won contracts in France, the Netherlands, Spain and various Middle East countries.

Later in the week another milestone on the government’s route map was passed when the High Court of the Region of Murcia once again came down in favour of the regional government and ruled that responsibility for paying back a loan of 182 million euros lies with former airport management concessionary Aeromur. Until now the debt has been taken on by the regional government, resulting initially in a daily interest payment of around 22,000 euros, although this amount has now been reduced to approximately 15,000 euros following a partial cancellation of the debt.

Tourism news

A sure sign that summer is on the way in the Spanish Costas is the announcement this week of the list of Blue Flags for quality services at beaches and marinas, and this year the number of flags which will be hoisted in the Region of Murcia has risen to 40, four more than in 2015 and almost double the 24 which were awarded to the Costa Cálida three years ago.

The new flags this year are at the Playa del Mojón in San Pedro del Pinatar, the Ensenada de Esparto in the northern end of La Manga (San Javier), the Paseo de Manzanares in Los Alcázares and the Playa del Cuartel in La Azohía (Cartagena). There are now 11 such locations in Cartagena, equaling Sanxenxo in the province of Pontevedra (Galicia) for the highest total of any municipality on Spain.

Cartagena was also at the forefront of tourism news regarding the official welcoming of the last of this spring’s weekly groups of Austrian seniors tourists on Thursday, when approximately 1,500 visitors attended two receptions at the Auditorio y Palacio de Congresos El Batel, and with the docking in the city of the cruise ship Royal Princess on Thursday the port is now prepared for a small but significant step forward in its attempts to become a home port on Sunday, when 20 passengers will become the first to begin their Mediterranean voyage in the city.

Anyone who visited Cartagena on Monday may have been surprised to find the area around the port cordoned off for a grand military ceremony, with cannons firing, flags being saluted and kissed and a host of local dignitaries and military officers gathering in the city centre.

The reason for this event was that it is an annual commemoration of the “Heroes of 2nd May”: the uprising of 2nd May 1808 was a revolt by the people of Madrid against the repression imposed on them by Napoleon’s troops, and occurred eight weeks after the Mutiny of Aranjuez.

Also related to tourism, the regional government is taking steps to deal with the issues caused by the fact that over the last few years the number of motor homes and caravans parked along coastal areas in the Region of Murcia during the winter has grown noticeably. Complaints are frequently heard that toilet waste is not properly disposed of, that the vehicles leave rubbish and that the occupants of the motor homes make only a minor contribution to the local economy by declining to pay for campsite accommodation, but the reality is that the Region of Murcia has become a popular destination for “wild campers” and, if the situation is properly managed, will continue to be so.

With Murcia as the warmest region of Spain during the winter months, it is natural that these "winter swallows" will flock to the heat, and although those opposed to them will attempt to minimise the revenue they generate, there is no denying that they spend money during the tourism down-season and could be a lucrative market if handled properly. In the light of this the regional government is studying the issue, and this week members of the four political parties represented in the regional parliament met José Lucas, the president of the Asociación Autocaravanista de la Región de Murcia, to discuss possible ways of ensuring that both the tourists and the residents in the Costa Cálida can be kept happy.

Similar efforts are being made to regulate the dog-friendly beaches in the Region of Murcia. Dog beaches have been designated in both Águilas and Mazarrón and the other eight coastal municipalities of Murcia have been toying with the idea of implementing similar policies, and as more and more people recognize the right of dog owners to take their pets to the beach the regional government has now issued a list of recommendations for such locations.

This week tourism expenditure figures were published, showing record March tourist spending figures in Spain by visitors from abroad, and the Costa Cálida also enjoyed its best April ever in this respect.

During the third month of this year visitors from abroad spent an estimated 57.2 million euros during their stays in Murcia, which lasted an average of 13.4 days. This is far longer than the average for the whole of Spain (8 days), reflecting the fact that many of those who come to the Region of Murcia own second homes here.

As normal, the British remained the most important market for Murcia, responsible for 38.4% of the monthly total, in other words, British tourists spent nearly 22 million euros in this region during March.

Motoring news

Road traffic around the city of Murcia was thrown into chaos on Wednesday morning by the closure of the westbound carriageway on the A-7 motorway between Espinardo in the north of the city and Alcantarilla a few kilometres to the west.

The road was closed following a collision between two trucks near the Las Torres de Cotillas exit at approximately 3.15 in the morning, when an eye witness reports that a lorry heading eastbound suffered a burst tyre and skewed onto the other side of the road.

Another motorway accident occurred on Sunday, when a woman was taken for treatment to the Santa Lucía hospital in Cartagena on Sunday after her car overturned at approximately 13.00 on the dual carriageway between Mazarrón and Alhama de Murcia, and the roads of Mazarrón were also in the news with the decision in the regional parliament on Wednesday that a cycle lane will be built alongside the RM-332 road between Mazarrón and Puerto de Mazarrón, adding to the work which has already been decided on to create a roundabout at the entrance to the new municipal sports complex and widen the road to make it a dual carriageway.

Environmental news

As the residents of Portmán in the municipality of La Unión anxiously await the start of work to regenerate the bay, hoping that no more delays are encountered in this long overdue project, a report has been published by a Professor of Geology at the Complutense university in Madrid which concludes that there is still a high level of toxicity in the massive landfill which pushed the shoreline back 550 metres during the 20th century.

According to Professor Mari Luz García the activities of the Lavadero Roberto, which was in operation until as recently as 1990 eliminating “impurities” from the substances mined, left large quantities of arsenic, cadmium and lead in the landfill, making it a dangerous area. 

In Murcia, in an agreement which is described by the Town Hall of Murcia as “historic”, it has been decided in conjunction with the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura that the area along the banks of the River in the regional capital is to be designated a “green corridor” and family leisure area. The CHS and the Town Hall have signed a document to allow the “Murcia Río” project to go ahead, creating two large parks, cultural and scenic tourist routes, a 27-kilometre cycle lane, areas themed on the traditions of the Huerta, a visitors centre and various sports and leisure facilities. At the same time work has been carried out by the CHS to increase the flow rate in the river itself as it passes through the city of Murcia in times of drought, reducing the mosquito population and providing a healthier environment along the banks.

On the subject of mosquitos, the regional health service of Murcia (SMS) is devoting 63,000 euros this year to the battle against the tiger mosquito (Aedes Albopictus), a species which was first identified in the Region in 2011, and has contracted a company called Lokímica to carry out the campaign.

The arrival of higher temperatures in the Region of Murcia this week coincided on Tuesday evening with the outbreak of a forest fire in the Mejuo area of the municipality of Cieza, where vegetation caught fire on the bank of the River Segura at approximately 20.00, and at the same time there were warnings of a possible Saharan dust cloud arriving in Spain: another warning has been issued on Friday.

Elsewhere, a new wooden walkway has been installed at the Los Cobaticas information centre in the regional park of Calblanque, Monte de las Cenizas y Peña del Águila in the west of the municipality of Cartagena, enabling visitors to learn about some of the native flora which is protected in the coastal reserve.

Lorca receives a fright as another earthquake alarms residents

Only eight days before the fifth anniversary of the earthquakes which caused widespread damage and destruction in the city of Lorca and claimed nine human lives, residents of the city were alarmed by another quake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale which occurred on Tuesday at 13.56. No damage has been reported, and to date the only noticeable aftershock was recorded on Wednesday morning at 11.32 in the north-west of the municipality at a depth of 10 kilometres.

Economic news

April is usually a positive month for the labour market in Murcia, with more people being taken on in the services sector as beach tourism kicks into gear for the summer and agricultural concerns also requiring more labour, and the figures published on Wednesday show that this year was no exception.

The number of people registered as being out of work at employment offices in Murcia dipped to 122,580 following a decrease of 3.27%, the second most significant in all of Spain’s 17 regions (behind the Balearics). The figure for Murcia has now fallen by 13,377, or 9.84%, over the last twelve months, again making the Region one of the best performers in the country.

On the subject of the economy, the Instituto de Fomento in Murcia has delivered to the Town Hall of San Javier the results of an energy consumption audit which contains measures designed to cut consumption by up to 75%, reducing spending by 883,000 euros per year.

Crime in Murcia

One of the most eye-catching crime stories in Murcia this week concerns the arrest of a 27-year-old man in connection with a bomb threat on 15th January of this year at the Isaac Peral secondary school in the centre of Cartagena, with the motive for the hoax apparently having been love: it was a desperate attempt to ensure that his ex-girlfriend left school early that day so that he could speak to her.

In order to make the threat more plausible the man arrested made sure that the number of the phone from which he was calling was concealed, played Arabic music in the background and ended the message by proclaiming “Allah is great”, and the appropriate security protocols were activated with over 700 people, most of them students, being evacuated immediately from the buildings.

In the rest of the region officers of the Seprona wildlife protection wing of the Guardia Civil swooped on a stall at an arts and crafts market in Abanilla and confiscated various marine fossils and corals due to their being protected by cultural heritage laws, and fruit thieves were active in the Campo: three members of a group who attempted to steal 200 kilos of oranges from an orchard in Pozo Estrecho were caught red-handed, and the Guardia Civil have arrested four people in connection with the theft of 15 tons of mandarins from an agricultural concern in San Javier,

Still in the Mar Menor area, two young men face charges in connection with a series of burglaries, thefts and unauthorized occupations of residential property in Santiago de la Ribera and San Pedro del Pinatar during April.

A man was arrested on Sunday in the centre of El Algar as he was making his way home on the bus after stealing a plasma television screen from a home in Playa Honda.

The arrest followed the report of the theft early in the morning by the owner, who had gone out to his garden and found it missing on returning inside shortly afterwards. The search for the thief began immediately, and the police soon received a call from a member of the public reporting the unusual sight of a man travelling on the bus from La Manga del Mar Menor to Cartagena with a TV on his lap.

Police were able to detain the thief with little difficulty.

Political corruption was in the spotlight this week in Totana, where the plea bargain deal reached with the prosecution in the Totem case by José Martínez Andreo, the former Mayor, has provoked plenty of comment. Initially the prosecution sought a prison sentence of eight and a half years for Sr Andreo on account of his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of public funds in Totana, but in exchange for admitting his guilt of two minor offences the actual punishment agreed upon is just a three-month suspended sentence.

The two offences for which Sr Martínez Andreo has admitted his guilt – or his mistakes – are related to the assignation of a contract for construction work at a local school to a builder without opening up a tender process, and a request made to the head of the Policía Local to drop charges against a man who faced a fine for driving while under the influence of alcohol. Questions are being asked as to how it has taken almost nine years for these charges to be brought to court, and as to how what were presented as major crimes are now being recorded as relatively trivial offences.

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Property news

No statistical bulletins or major news stories were published over the last week specifically regarding the residential property market in the Region of Murcia, although with most of the economic indicators pointing in the right direction and spring weather attracting more visitors to the Costa Cálida professionals in the sector continue to exude optimism.

See below for a summary of national property news.

Spanish news

After months of failed negotiations, Spain’s King Felipe finally dissolved parliament on Tuesday and officially called a parliamentary election for June 26th, the second in six months after an inconclusive ballot in December left the political landscape fragmented.

The new ballot follows four months of fruitless coalition talks between Spain's four main parties, including the conservative People's Party (PP) of acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy, which won the most votes in December but lost its majority.

As a result the parties are now beginning to canvas for votes, but the results of a survey carried out between January and March by the Sociological Research Centre appear to suggest that it will be very difficult for any party to achieve a significantly better result than in December. 78.4% of those questioned intend to vote the same way as four and half months ago, and the likelihood is that many of the others could choose not to vote at all.

Meanwhile, leading PP politician Javier Arenas responded this last weekend to King Felipe VI’s request for a more “austere” campaign this time round by suggesting an official ten-day campaign without posters. The poster issue is still to be decided, but it seems that there is agreement among the main parties that only the email and postal campaigns and the televised debates are really essential.

Economic news

As Spain continues without a government it is still not absolutely clear whether the economy is suffering as a result. Unemployment continues to fall, with the April figures which were published on Wednesday showing a fall of 83,000 (or 2.04%) during the fourth month of the year, and the total is now 322,000 lower than a year ago at just over 4 million.

April is usually a positive month for the Spanish labour market, with more people being taken on in the services sector as beach tourism kicks into gear for the summer and agricultural concerns also requiring more labour, and 2016 was no exception. In fact, the Ministry of Employment reports that during the month a net 130,730 new jobs were created, and among these over 58,000 were in the sector of “hostelería”, i.e. bars and restaurants: the Spanish waiter may be a comic stereotype in the UK, but he (or she) is crucial in the annual improvement in unemployment figures every summer!

The improvement in unemployment is substantial, but that there is still plenty of room for improvement is underlined by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics bureau, who report that in March the highest unemployment rates in the EU were those of Greece (24.4%) and Spain (20.4%).The UK has only a quarter of the unemployment rate in Spain.

Certainly it seems almost inevitable that Spain will again miss its budget deficit target in 2016, but other factors also point to the fact that the situation is improving. Car sales in April this year were around 20% higher than in 2015, an increase which is partly explained by Easter having fallen in March but which nonetheless consolidates the rising trend of the last two years, and although consumer confidence continues to fall it did so only slightly in April.

Also in the economic news is the European Central Bank’s confirmation on Wednesday that it is to stop printing 500-euro notes on the grounds that the “Bin Ladens” have become synonymous with corruption, and tax evasion. The “euro 2” series of banknotes, of which the 5-, 10- and 20-euro denominations are already in circulation, will not include a 500-euro note, although the existing version will continue to be legal tender at least until the completion of the Euro 2 series.

Tourism news

One of the sectors leading Spain’s economic recovery is tourism, and this was further confirmed during the week with the publication of the March figures for spending by visitors from abroad.

The overall results continue to be extremely positive, with the amount spent by international visitors in Spain during March having reached 4,838 million euros. This is 10% more than in March 2015, with the growth being fuelled to a large extent by a spectacular 26.8% increase in spending by visitors from the UK, the largest single market. During the month British visitors spent almost a billion euros (991 million) in Spain to claim a 20.5% share of the total, the rise being almost solely due to the fact that more people came to Spain from the UK: the average amount spent by each British visitor was only 1.4% higher.

Last weekend was a long holiday weekend in both the UK and many parts of Spain due to International Workers’ Day falling on Sunday – the celebrations passed off peacefully in Spain, unlike in France and Greece - and this led to around two thirds of holiday rental properties being occupied, many of them in Andalucía. The fact that summer is just around the corner was also reinforced by the beginning of the annual Festival de los Patios in Córdoba. The event lasts until Sunday 15th May, giving visitors the chance to enjoy the charming patios of the city which were added to the Unesco list of World Intangible Cultural Heritage sites in 2012.

This year’s festival features 47 patios in competition to win the prize for the most attractive venue and another 16 institutional venues, and the hope is that the number of visitors will exceed the 100,000 of 2015.

A further significant boost to spring tourism in Spain is being made over the weekend by Li Jinyuan, the founder and owner of the Tiens Group. Tiens is a Chinese multinational conglomerate, and to reward his employees for their hard work the owner is bringing approximately 2,500 of them for a week’s holiday in Spain between 4th and 10th May.

The Chinese visitors arrived in Madrid on Wednesday on board 20 planes, and will stay there until Sunday, when they will travel on board 4 AVE high-speed trains for another two days in Barcelona before flying home. 1,650 hotel rooms have been reserved and a fleet of 70 coaches was hired for a day trip to Toledo on Thursday.

Another sign that summer is almost upon us was, unfortunately, the first alcohol-related death of a young British tourist in Magaluf, where the lifeless body of a 23-year-old woman was found in the bath of her hotel room. An autopsy which was performed on Tuesday showed that she had died from drowning after falling unconscious, and that there was a very high level of alcohol in her bloodstream.

Environmental news

The theme of the approach of summer is recurring one in the Spanish news at this time of year, and one of the signs that temperatures are rising was the reports of various wild fires across the country this week. In the Andalucía province of Huelva approximately 100 residents of the village of Fuente de la Corcha in the municipality of Beas were evacuated from their homes on Tuesday as a precautionary measure due to a forest fire which broke out in the eucalyptus woods nearby, and the regional government of Andalucía activated level 1 alert status. During the afternoon the flames were fanned by winds of between 20 and 30 km/h, and the decision to evacuate the population of Fuente de la Corcha was pre-empted by some of the residents leaving of their own accord.

In Catalunya, meanwhile, another forest fire which broke out on Sunday at approximately 13.00 in the province of Girona forced the cancellation of rail services on the R11 line in the area after the flames and smoke engulfed the station of Llança.

Elsewhere there were concerns over a proposal to prospect for rare earth elements in the Campo de Montiel area of the province of Ciudad Real, where the tranquil lifestyle of the 42,000 people who live there is now threatened by the discovery of deposits of grey monazite.

One of the potential uses of monazite is the production of uranium concentrate, although it is also used to make wind turbines, low consumption lamps, lasers and hybrid cars, and the discovery of the deposits in the Campo de Montiel could stimulate unprecedented growth in economic activity in the area. However, local residents are not convinced, and have organized a protest on 21st May where they will voice their worries, chief among which is that mining would “destroy” the agricultural land from which they make their living.

Equally controversial is the issue of fracking, and this week the “Cronos” fracking project which was authorized by the Spanish government in the provinces of Guadalajara and Soria in 2013 has received the backing of the country’s Supreme Court, allowing the Frontera Energy Corporation to prospect for fossil fuel in an area of 96,000 hectares despite the objections raised by environmental activist groups.

Crime and punishment

Arguably the most important arrests to take place in Spain these week were those of three Moroccans and one Spanish national in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the region of Madrid on charges of recruiting and indoctrinating people to fight for the Jihadist cause. The arrests took place in the municipalities of Pinto and Ciempozuelos, and it is reported that the four people detained were “very active” in spreading Jihadist propaganda on the internet and via online messaging.

However, there were plenty of other crime stories to catch the eye, including the start of the trial of alleged Russian mafia boss Alexander Romanov in Palma de Mallorca – he will be represented by lawyer Cristóbal Martell, who in the past has represented footballer Leo Messi – and the arrests of 13 members of a Rumanian clan who attempted to abduct a 16-year-old compatriot in Alicante and force her to rob the elderly.

Also in the news was a 71-year-old man who, along with a 56-year-old accomplice, has been arrested by the Guardia Civil in connection with three bank robberies in Cuenca, Toledo and Móstoles (in the region of Madrid) during which they made off with approximately 150,000 euros. The 71-year-old has spent almost 30 years in prison over a long career devoted to armed robbery which dates back to the 1960s, and now, having been arrested in Jávea, in the Marina Alta area of Alicante, he is back behind bars, and the likelihood is that he will now be forced to contemplate retirement once and for all.

The issue of gender violence was once again in the news, the highest-profile story this week concerning a woman in Benalmádena, on the Costa del Sol, who was practically living as a hostage of her husband but who has succeeded in escaping from her nightmare by means of a plea for help which she slipped inside her son’s school books. Her desperate “message in a bottle” plan worked when one of the boy’s teachers was reviewing his homework and found the note.

By definition anyone reading these words ought to be aware of the fact that the amount of internet crime in Spain has increased by 60% since 2012, according to the head of the Policía Nacional. New technologies are particularly susceptible to being used for fraud, although as yet internet crimes still only account for approximately 2% of all those reported in this country. 

Basque and Catalan separatism

In Spain the issues of Republicanism (as opposed to a monarchist State) and regional separatism (particularly in Catalunya and the Basque Country) are never far from the news, and as a result the issue of flags is particularly important in this country.

In this context the Basque region won a minor victory this week regarding the Eurovision Festival, which will be held this year in Stockholm from 10th to 14th May, with a decision to ban the “ikurriña” flag of the Basque Country having been hastily reversed by the European Broadcasting Union in response to the outrage which was caused by its inclusion on a blacklist.

In Catalunya, meanwhile, the new “national” Hacienda tax collection agency has been dealt a blow by the Town Hall of Barcelona, where it has been decided that PAYE contributions of 12,000 council staff will continue to be made to the Spanish Hacienda, but although Mayoress Ada Colau and Carles Puigdemont, the president of the regional government of Catalunya, may not see eye to eye on all issues, in the matters of the anti-eviction law in Catalunya and the reception of refugees from Eastern Europe and beyond they have united against the common enemy of the national government in Madrid.

In response, Sra Colau has requested that Sr Puigdemont and the regional parliament seek mechanisms by which the anti-eviction law can be defended against attempts in Madrid to outlaw it, and on the question of refugees both of the political leaders lamented the “ineffectiveness” of the national government. Sra Colau describes Spain’s record of having received only 17 refugees out of a quota of close to 17,000 as “shameful, inadmissible, unjustifiable, immoral and illegal”.

And finally…

On the quirky side of the Spanish news this week there is plenty to choose from.

Almost 400 students at the Campuses of the la Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in the Ciutadella and Poblenou districts of Barcelona are currently living in fear of being attacked by carrot-wielding assailants as part of a five-week war game, and in Madrid the ever-controversial Mayoress has ordered 40 ball shaped glass recycling containers to be removed from the city on the grounds that they are “offensive and sexist” due to the “Recicla por Pelotas” slogan which appears on them.

The slogan, which is difficult to translate in any meaningful way, makes use of a play on words based on the fact that the same word can be used to refer to tennis balls and parts of the male genitalia, and despite the campaign having been endorsed by Rafa Nadal the Town Hall has decided that the containers are in bad taste, are offensive, and appear to be directed only at men.

There is also the curious situation which led to Antonio Cerrillo, an adviser to the Town Hall of Cantoria in the province of Almería (Andalucía) and husband of the Mayoress, Purificación Sánchez, being thrown out of a council meeting last Thursday for insulting the local PP spokesman José María Llamas, but possibly the winner in the “and finally” category this week is Pipo, a seventeen-year-old hippopotamus who surprised residents of Palos de la Frontera in the province of Huelva on Tuesday night when he calmly took a stroll through the streets of the town.

Adult hippos grow to an average weight of 1.4 tons and attacks on human beings have been reported on numerous occasions, but the population of Palos de la Frontera are a sturdy breed and they appeared to be equally unconcerned about the unexpected intruder in their midst. Rather than alarm, the hippo provoked curiosity and surprise among those who witnessed its excursion, and many approached to take photos and videos. 

Property news

As the recovery of the residential property market in Spain continues the signs are that the demand for new construction is beginning to re-awaken after an eight-year slump, with the data published last week by the Ministry of Fomento showing that the number of properties for which building licences were issued in February reached 5,663, an increase of 34.8% compared to the same month last year. 

An illustration of how severe the boom-and-bust effect has been over the last decade is that in September 2006 licences were granted for the construction of over 126,000 homes, but by August 2013 the figure had dropped to only 1,585. No-one is realistically expecting a return to the levels of ten years ago as it is essential that the building and buying frenzy of the boom years is not repeated, but at the same time it is encouraging that the construction sector is at last required in order to begin replenishing the stock of unsold properties in certain areas.

One of the factors currently contributing to the recovery of sales figures and the Spanish residential property market in general is the increase in the profitability of buying to rent, according to one analysis.

According to the report, this has been brought about by the combination of low market prices and the ease of obtaining mortgage finance. For cheap apartments priced at under 45,000 euros near universities in medium-sized towns the refurbishment costs tend to be minimal, and the result is a rate of return on investment which cannot be matched by any bank fund at present.

In addition, in large cities it is now relatively easy to obtain mortgages on property purchases for up to 100,000 euros, and this brings smarter properties in central locations within the range of investors who seek to rent out to retired couples, divorced individuals and even young couples looking to climb onto the property ladder for the first time.

As a result of these factors the buy-to-rent market is reported to have grown by 40% over the last year, and with market conditions remaining stable there would appear to be no reason to rule out further growth in the medium-term future.

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