ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin W/E 29th December 2013
Murcia government takes on Corvera airport loan, Christmas in Murcia
This weekend Murcia winds down for Christmas, with the holiday season starting today. The main celebrations in Spain are focused on Three Kings, with their Cabalgata parades on the evening of the 5th January, although the commercial element of Christmas is becoming increasingly important here as the years go by. Most town centres will have activities underway to tempt shoppers into their local commercial centres and in each there will be a municipal belén, the nativity scene so popular in Spanish traditions.
Murcia city has plenty on offer this weekend, starting with the arrival of Father Christmas, open air operatic favourites in Plaza Belluga, snow toboggan, ballet, artisan fair and belens. There are more activities still to write up for the coming week which will be added to the site. These can be consulted any time by using the town sections at the bottom of every page, select Murcia capital and then choose what’s on Murcia City from the subject headings. A popular event to highlight is the Living belén at El Raal which opens over Christmas and Three Kings, starting on Christmas day.
Cartagena also has a full programme of Christmas activities, with music by the municipal belén, open air ice skating rink, The Nutcracker ballet, Handel’s Messiah, Choral concert in the church and other concerts. ( see what’s on section and select What’s on Cartagena from subject headings.
Staying in the Mar Menor, La Unión has a Mediaeval market this weekend, San Pedro del Pinatar a choral concert, San Javier inaugurates its 125th Anniversary belén with a concert to go with it, and at la Manga del Mar Menor, on “the strip” the Galeria Flamenco has its Christmas fair, a very popular event with lots of activities going on in collaboration with local associations.
Mazarrón has its Christmas concert, Águilas has Handel’s Messiah, Torre Pacheco a large scale Outlet Shopping event at the IFEPA showground, and on Sunday San Javier also has a Christmas fair.
Lorca has a band and choral solidarity concert , Alhama de Murcia Christmas concerts, Cehegín a Christmas concert and artisan market, and Caravaca de la Cruz has a Christmas market this weekend as well.
Later next week the Ed’ s choice for Christmas is the concert by Ana Alcaide in San Pedro del Pinatar on the 27th, a superb artist who performs hauntingly beautiful world music.
There are lots of other events as well over Christmas and New Year, but next week no bulletin will be sent, so check the What’s on section for more events . Use the subject tabs on the right hand side to select the area you would like to specifically search, or just scroll down. Alternatively, use the Events Diary tab, which is located in the header bar of every page, which helps you to search day by day.
This weekend Cehegín holds the last in its series of guided family walks, the day of the bicycles in Totana offers an enjoyable ride for all ages and San Pedro del Pinatar also has a cycling route on offer through the Salinas regional park. Terra Natura has opened its new pony riding centre, and META at Alhama de Murcia has its Christmas Open day from 11am onwards on the 21st December.
There are also other seasonal family activities on offer, with ice skating at the Tentegorra park in Cartagena, as well as in central Cartagena itself and the toboggan and ice skating rink at Murcia is also open over the Christmas period.
Alternatively, look through the Where to Go section with lots of options for places to go and things to see across the region.
This week again, Corvera airport has been in the news, the regional government signing the bank loan agreement paperwork which now officially increases regional debt by 182 million euros and formerly makes the region liable for 23 million euros of interest for the duration of the three year loan. Although the government hopes to either find a new concessionary or resolve the issues with the former concessionary, who will take on the loan, it’s still an unwelcome additional burden on regional finances.
As part of the programme to realise assets, the regional government is selling off surplus properties, some of which have now been put up for auction for the second time, including the former Los Arcos hospital in San Javier.
Other property news out this week relates to the price of property nationally. The whole evolution of the property market since the beginning of 2008 has been downward, both in terms of the volume of sales and the prices. However, it’s becoming obvious that prices are starting to reach their minimum levels, although volumes of sales still remain very low. However, the figures released this week show that prices in Murcia have fallen by double the national average so far this year, as although Murcia has had a better year than some in terms of the amount of properties sold, they’re being moved with big discounts on, good news for buyers who are picking up bargains at the expense of vendors.
Another factor which could affect the price of property in Murcia was also in the news this week, as Pedro Cruz attended a conference about theme parks. Paramount are said to have injected cash into this project themselves as the hunt for financing continues.
This week the Cartagena –Vera Ghost Highway, which is already on the verge of bankruptcy, has been back in the news as the government announce price increases in the tolls from the beginning of January. The biggest problem facing the toll road is lack of users as the tolls are generally viewed to be too high by locals, who use the old back roads instead rather than pay the high toll fees……
Although this week “El Gordo” could once again land on Murcia. Murcians have spent one of the highest amounts in all of Spain in the hope that this weekend they may become rich.
An important note for business owners in the Region is the information about government incentives to employ young people, as part of a drive to reduce youth unemployment.
Spanish national news www.spanishnewstoday.com
This week the big story ending the week is the massive increase in the price of electricity on 1st January, although this story still isn´t over. On Wednesday the Minister for Industry announced that the government would be increasing its share of the electric tariff by 2%, and with the wholesale energy auction taking place on Thursday, increases of 5-6% were expected for January. However, the wholesale auction took place and a whopping increase of 11% was announced on Thursday. As expected, there’s been uproar from consumer groups and the business sector, so on Friday morning the government declared the energy auction invalid and swore the increase would be limited to more reasonable levels, however, this is a first, so it’s not clear as of lunchtime Friday how this will all evolve from here. Watch this space!
The legislation relating to road safety has finally cleared Congress this week, meaning helmets will be compulsory for under 16’s riding in a urban environment, and imposing much stiffer penalties on those caught drink driving, with a new fine of 1000 euros for those who refuse to give a breath or bloodtest when stopped by police. This 1000 euros will also be applied to anyone over double the limit or who is caught drink driving again after having been fined previously. However, it doesn´t authorise the increase of the speed limit on motorways for now.
This links nicely to another story which has had the Spanish media buzzing this week, relating to a driver who has been fined for talking to his passenger while in charge of a vehicle. Over-reaction by police or preventing an accident, the debate has been raging all week.
Feelings are still running high about the Citizen Safety Law, a major protest outside Congress turning nasty and concluding with both police and protestors hospitalised. This week the Ministry of Interior has announced that it intends to purchase a water cannon, and Madrid council has also purchased an octocopter to help it with firefighting and security.
On the tourism front, low cost airlines have yet again increased their share of the international flights market as the numbers of Brits heading to Spain for holidays this year continues to increase. A rotten summer in the UK and unsettled weather continues to make Spain highly attractive to British tourists who in turn represent one of the most important markets for the low cost airlines. A couple of interesting little stories relating to tourism also came through this week, one about the Pope collaborating with a parrot park in the canary islands to try and save an endangered Colombian parrot, and another about the plans of Málaga council to resurrect the Caminito del Rey, a high level pathway across the cliff face which is currently only accessible for climbers.
This week we’ve also had seven Spanish football teams facing investigation for alleged irregularities in their funding, a bakery inserting gold nuggets in its Christmas roscóns in an attempt to drum up sales, and a tragic case involving a family who have fallen on hard times and live by collecting cardboard ( and food) from bins, three of whom died from food poisoning after eating suspect food. Again, this has been running all week, as their relatives denied that they collected out of date food, and the line of enquiry turned to why ambulance staff called out in the middle of the night failed to recognise the seriousness of the symptoms and they weren´t taken to hospital until a second ambulance crew were called out several hours later, by which time it was too late.
Valencia news www.valenciatoday.es
A British national had to be airlifted to hospital in Orihuela yesterday when the 62 year old woman had an accident while climbing the immense Sierra Negra rockface.
Orihuela has also been at the heart of the continuing arguments over rubbish, as the Mayors affected by the enforced decision to make councils take their rubbish to specific dumps threaten rebellion due to the increased costs this will add to their rubbish collection bills.
Property price stats released nationally show that while prices in neighbouring Murcia keep falling, Valencia prices have actually started to increase, positive figures which are also reflected in the volumes of low cost flights coming in to Alicante-El Altet, the figures increasing by an impressive 9% , the Brits remaining the Low Cost Kings of the airways.
Interesting news from Santa Pola in the Alicante province, where plans are underway to build a new cable ski waterpark facility for next summer, increasing the tourist attractions of the region.
There are also lots of Christmas related events coming in for the Vega Baja area over Christmas, although there have also been complaints this week that the coast just isn´t Christmassy enough.
Don´t forget, all community contributions are welcome, so please send in your charity and club events for inclusion to contact@spanishnewstoday.com
Our editorial team are taking a well earned break over Christmas, although more what’s on will be added to the sites, so the next bulletin will be in the New Year. Thank you for your continued support and wishing all our readers a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.
Click here for your Weekly Euro / Pound exchange rate update W/E 22nd December 2013 and don´t forget to ask for a quote when transferring pension payments over from the UK. Currency transfer services are considerably cheaper than the banks.
Readers may also find this latest information about the Astra Satellite system which could affect TV coverage in Spain of interest.
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