ARCHIVED - Murcian and Spanish news round-up week ending 12th August 2016

Murcia is ready to enjoy the long August holiday weekend

This weekend is lengthened for many people by the national holiday which falls on Monday 15^th August to coincide with the feast day of the Assumption, and as a result it is fair to expect the beaches and main roads of the Region of Murcia to be as busy as they get at any point in the year.

However, while Spaniards don their swimming gear and head for the beach for three days, there have been plenty of important and interesting items in the regional and national news.

The Mar Menor clean-up gathers momentum

The Mar Menor has been prominent in the regional news over the last few weeks due to an increased level of algal growth in its waters, caused by continued runoff of agricultural fertilizers into the water from farming areas in the Cartagena campo, and this week the moves towards solving the problem gathered momentum.

First and foremost, the weekly water quality tests carried out by the Health Department of the regional government in Murcia show once again that in biological terms the water of the lagoon remains free from contamination and is completely safe for bathers.

In addition, although the officials recognize that the water is more turbid, or murkier, than is usually the case, phytoplankton levels are still at low risk level: in fact, they were found to have dropped slightly at the beaches of Los Alíseos, Manzanares and El Castillico. There have now been over 1,000 water samples tested at the beaches of the Costa Cálida, including the Mediterranean as well as the Mar Menor, since 15th May, and all have concluded that the water is apt for bathing.

In the meantime, the government announced that a multidisciplinary committee is to be formed in order to decide on how to protect the marine environment of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon, and members of the public are invited to comment on the proposals made in order to combat the threat of contamination.

The commission will meet fully for the first time at the beginning of September to assess the situation and develop a programme to thoroughly investigate all angles of the problem and how to deal with it on a long-term basis, as well as to resolve the current problems which are deterring bathers from using the water.

However, in spite of the measures being undertaken to resolve the issues, local residents continue to demand further rapid action and on Saturday residents and homeowners demonstrated in Los Nietos on Saturday to demand “urgent action” regarding the condition of the Mar Menor. A group of between 300 and 700 people gathered as part of a programme of three Saturday demonstrations which have been planned for the month of August, and prior to the demonstration the Town Hall of Cartagena presented its suggestions for modifications to the Integral Management Plan for the Mar Menor which has been proposed by the regional government, demanding increased protection for Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon.

While bathers may have been deterred from swimming in the Mar Menor,and moved over to the Mediterranean beaches on the Murcian coastline, the latest data regarding hotel occupancy suggest that the tourist sector in Murcia has not been too badly hit. The occupancy rate in Costa Cálida hotels reached 85% during July, five points higher than in July 2015, and the expectation is that the figure could rise to 95% during August.

In the latter part of the week the president of the regional government indicated that any activity which represents a threat to the Mar Menor could be curtailed, including the agriculture which has become one of the mainstays of the economy in this part of Murcia.

At the same time, the measures being introduced by the regional government of Murcia have received the backing of Mariano Rajoy, the caretaker president of the national government in Madrid. Sr Rajoy stated on Thursday via his Twitter account that “we will work together with (Sr Sánchez) to protect and improve the Mar Menor”, describing the lagoon as "a unique location in Europe which must be preserved”.

There are 197 beaches and coves in the Region of Murcia altogether, so bathers have a vast choice of both Mar Menor and Mediterranean beaches to choose from. This week Murcia Today has set live its own guide to the beaches of the Region of Murcia, showing most of the beaches which can be accessed easily from land. The beaches of Lorca have still to be loaded over the weekend.Click Murcia Beach Guide

Other environmental news

In Portmán, meanwhile, the long-lasting campaign to regenerate the bay after decades of toxic sterile dumping during the last century came another step closer to fruition on Monday, when the works contract was officially signed by the national government and the project was definitively awarded to the temporary merger company formed by Marco and Ciomar.

Over the last five years there have been many false dawns, but following the signing of the contract this week it is hoped that no further hiccups will occur. However, the attitude among the locals and the environmental groups concerned is reported to be one of cautious optimism, given the jinx which appears to have surrounded previous regeneration projects: hopefully, their fears will be allayed over the next few months.

Further west, residents and homeowners in the small coastal village of El Portús, which lies between Cartagena and the Bay of Mazarrón, are optimistic this week that a solution may soon be reached to the considerable problems they have faced over the last few years.

Attacked on both sides by water erosion from the waves of the Mediterranean and rock falls from the Monte de las Casillas, the seafront walk in El Portús has become a no-go area, and the occupants of some of the houses near the beach have been forcibly evacuated on safety grounds.

The first step towards a solution consists of a commitment made by Costas to designing a new project which will put an end to the misery of residents of El Portús, with a view to providing a new walkway which is in keeping with the protected status of the area along the seafront. This weekend, Portús celebrates its summer fiestas, part of which includes a demonstration of historical fishing techniques used by the fishermen who formerly inhabited the cove ( see lead image).

Similarly, the Town Hall of Mazarrón is seeking help in its efforts to preserve the eroded rocks at Bolnuevo.

Elsewhere, the Town Hall of Murcia continues to implement a “minimalist gardening” policy in the city’s public parks and gardens, planting over 60 varieties of cactus in order to reduce maintenance work and at the same time minimize the use of the precious water resources which at times are scarce in the Costa Cálida. At the same time anyone thinking of planning a garden in southern Spain would be well-advised to follow the lead given by the Town Hall!

The same local council has also presented its latest gas-powered bus, and there are now a total of 25 gas-powered buses in Murcia, bringing about a 99% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions and a 25% in carbon monoxide production.

Murcia strikes gold in Rio (sort of!)

Mireia Belmonte of the UCAM Club Natación Fuensanta at the UCAM university in the outskirts of Murcia won Spain’s first medal at the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, claiming a bronze in the women’s 400 metres individual medley final at the Olympic pool.

She then went two steps better on Wednesday, winning gold by a margin of three hundredths of a second in the 200 metres butterfly event and in the process becoming Spain’s first female Olympic swimming gold medallist.

Strictly speaking, though, 25-year-old Mireia Belmonte García is not really from the Region of Murcia, having been born in Badalona (province of Barcelona), but she joined the Murcia swimming club while studying for a degree in advertising and public relations and competes for UCAM Murcia as a result. She won two silver medals at the 2012 Olympics in London, and Murcia sports fans are more than happy to view her as one of their own! 

Crime and punishment

A 40-year-old banana boat driving Brit from La Manga rammed a regional government patrol vessel and did a rapid “Brexit” into the night on Tuesday, while diners at the Club Náutico Dos Mares on La Manga del Mar Menor watched in astonishment as the incident unfolded. The bright orange patrol boat limped to the shore seeking urgent medical attention for the Guardia Civíl officer, biologist and boat owner on board the vessel.

Witnesses report that the pilot of the leisure craft appeared to have been distracted and was looking behind his craft at the large inflatable banana he was towing and its three passengers, and therefore failed to see the patrol boat as he ploughed right into the side of it. The banana itself flew straight over the top of the patrol boat, its stabilising skeg causing a deep gash in the leg of the biologist on board, and the British pilot performed a hasty “Brit and run” before being detained two days later by the Guardia.

Elsewhere the owner of hunting land in the municipality of Moratalla is facing charges after having been identified by the Guardia Civil as being responsible for the death by poisoning of at least four dogs, while in Librilla a 38-year-old man has been arrested by the Guardia Civil after a plantation containing 200 marijuana plants was spotted by an aerial surveillance unit on his property.

Tourism

The latest foreign tourist expenditure figures for the month of June reveal that during the month the amount spent by visitors to the Region of Murcia was 139.3 million euros, and that the upward trend of recent months continued as the summer season began.

The latest data mean that after six months of 2016 the accumulated total of spending by foreign visitors has risen by 41.2% to 455 million euros, or 1.39% of the figure for the whole of Spain. As is customary the largest single share of this total is accounted for by visitors from the UK: British visitors spent 41.6% of the overall figure 189.5 million euros in Murcia between 1^st January and 30^th June.

However, spending by other nationalities has risen even more sharply, and the British share of the market has dropped slightly this year, due simply to the fact that more foreign nationals from other countries are coming to the region.

Looking ahead, August is set to be a very busy month at the cruise ship terminal in Cartagena, and as a result also in the shops, bars and restaurants which lie close to the seafront, with approximately 26,000 passengers arriving for visits on their voyages around the western Mediterranean. July was already a busy month, with over 20,000 people arriving in Cartagena on board nine cruise liners, but this month there will be a total of ten, the first of which were the Eurodam on Monday and the Britannia and the Saga Pearl II on Tuesday. 

In the midst of all of this growth, officials of the regional government have so far this year identified 123 companies which offer short-term apartment rentals but which do not declare any income from this activity.

This is part of a drive to clamp down on unregulated and undeclared rentals, and visits have been made to 60 of the businesses concerned, with exactly half of them having requested that their activities be correctly regulated, thus removing the suspicion in future that they represent unfair competition for those rental companies and hotels which fully declare their activities to the authorities and pay tax as a result. At the same time, this means that certain minimum requirements will have to be met regarding quality and cleanliness in the properties concerned. 

A survey carried out by officials of Hacienda in May estimates that of the 62,000 holiday rental properties in Murcia only 24,000 were properly registered, the lowest proportion in Spain, and of course this considerably distorts official occupancy rate figures. 

Summer storms and maritime rescues hit the August headlines

Despite ample warning having been issued regarding the arrival of stormy weather in the Region of Murcia on Wednesday, the emergency services were called out on no fewer than five occasions to rescue people who had got into trouble while sailing and enjoying other water sports in the normally calm water of the Mar Menor.

Just the day before seven people who were on board an 8.5-metre boat in the Mar Menor on Tuesday evening had to swim and wade their way to safety after water started leaking into the vessel and it began to sink.

The Region of Murcia is spending over 672,000 euros on this summer’s lifeguard and rescue services at the beaches of the Costa Cálida, but if people fail to take the weather forecast into account the 250 staff involved could easily become overstretched!

After the midweek storms, the forecast for the weekend is for a slight drop in temperatures, with more typical August weather due to return early next week.

As for wild fires, while huge conflagrations were in the news in the region of Galicia and the island of La Palma this week (see below), in Lorca firefighters were called out on Monday to a diesel fuel outlet in La Hoya in order to put out a fire which had broken out on the premises. Fortunately no casualties were reported.

Murcia property news

The residential property sales figures for June in Murcia show that the 912 sales registered in Murcia during the month represent an increase over the same month last year of 5.7%, and although this is less than the national rise of 19.4% (see below) the overall data are encouraging.

In the longer term, the year-to-date total in Murcia is now 24.9% higher than it was in June 2015, while the running 12-monthly total has risen by 22.6% over the last year and has reached its highest level since November 2011.

Spanish national news round-up week ending 12^th August 2016

After many months of fruitless negotiations, the long holiday weekend which starts on Friday will provide a few days off for the political party leaders of Spain after a week in which significant progress could well have been made towards at last forming a new government.

This Wednesday could eventually be seen as a momentous day in this long-lasting saga, with the Ciudadanos party led by Albert Rivera to offering its support for the PP’s Mariano Rajoy in an investiture debate in parliament at some point during the next few weeks.

There is, of course, a price to be paid. Ciudadanos are demanding that the PP take action to eliminate allegedly corrupt members from the party, and other conditions include the elimination of impunity for members of the national and regional governments, the reform of the electoral system and the setting up of a parliamentary committee to investigate the “Bárcenas” case, which involves the alleged illegal financing of the PP.

However, it seems feasible that these demands will be acceptable: the PP executive committee will decide whether or not to accept the deal on 17^th August, and if they respond in the affirmative this would raise the level of support for the acting President to 169 votes out of 350, leaving him requiring only a few abstentions from other parties to be reinstated as leader of a minority government.

On the other hand, the PSOE party maintains that it will vote against the re-investiture of Mariano Rajoy, leaving significant hurdles still to be overcome.

Summer wild fires rage in Galicia and La Palma

After over a week firefighters continue to struggle in the face of adverse conditions as they combat the wild fire which has been raging in the south of the island of La Palma, the fifth largest in the Canaries, and the regional government reports that the area of land affected has risen to over 5,000 hectares.

It has been established that the blaze was caused by a German hippy-style recluse burning his own used toilet paper after meeting the call of nature in the woods.

The fire has been stabilized on all fronts but is not yet fully under control, and as the situation gradually returns to normal attention is now turning to the after-effects of the fire, among which are the large numbers of pets who are lost in the charred landscape of southern La Palma as a result of the blaze.

The fire in La Palma came close to claiming two more human lives on Wednesday, following the death of a fireman last week, when a helicopter involved in firefighting duties crashed on the slopes of the mountain of El Cabrito in the municipality of Mazo, but fortunately the two occupants of the helicopter suffered only minor injuries

In the north-east of the country, while the huge fire in La Palma has occupied many of the headlines in the Spanish news, in the province of Pontevedra (region of Galicia) an equally alarming situation has developed over the last four days. The total area of land affected by nine fires in Pontevedra is now even greater than in La Palma – estimates place it at approximately 5,700 hectares – and residents in some rural areas have had to be evacuated, including 40 children at a summer camp for young people.

So overstretched are the firefighting services that residents have had to help in any way they can, attempting to douse the flames with buckets of water and hosepipes or even to beat them with blankets and small branches in order to save their homes and land.

The real source of concern, though, according to the regional government, is that all the indications are that these fires were started deliberately, and local residents are demanding that the arsonist (or arsonists) responsible be identified and punished as soon as the flames are extinguished.

While most of Spain suffered in the heat this week there were storms in the south-east on Wednesday, calling to mind the 20^th anniversary of a flash flood which caused the loss of 87 lives at the campsite of Las Nieves in Biescas, in the province of Huesca (province of Aragón). To mark the occasion the Town Hall unveiled a monument to the victims on Sunday as a gesture of support and respect.

Elsewhere, the north and west of Spain suffered the back end of the latest heatwave: on Sunday night the discomfort continued with minimum temperatures falling no lower than 30 degrees in many parts of Extremadura and southern Galicia, and  in the province of Badajoz on Sunday night the heat was such that even at 8.30 in the morning, before the sun began to heat up the air, the thermometer showed 33ºC.

Tourism news

The latest foreign tourist expenditure figures, which were published last week and relate to June, reveal that during the month the amount spent by visitors to Spain from abroad was 7,871 million euros, a healthy 12.7% more than in the equivalent month last year.

The figures for almost all of the largest markets rose in June 2016, not least in the single most important one, namely the UK. During June British visitors accounted for 23% of the total with spending of 1,808 million euros, representing a rise of 16.6% compared to June 2015, while the figures for France and Germany also increased by 19.7% and 12.4% respectively.

In general terms the year-to-date figures after six months of 2016 tell a similar story. The total spending by foreign visitors rose by 8.2% to 32,685 million euros, with the UK market accounting for a 20.6% share (6,726 million) following an increase of 14.5%.

On the other hand, while in general terms Spain’s tourism sector is enjoying a boom year in 2016, the government of the island of Mallorca is worried that there may actually be too much tourismthis year, and have launched a campaign to promote the concept of “sustainable tourism” for the future. The concern is not only that Mallorca is becoming too crowded, ironically making it a less attractive destination for discerning visitors, but also that the island’s resources may be overused to the detriment of the population of over 850,000 who live there all year round.

Every day in the height of summer there are up to 1,000 flights into and out of the airport of Palma de Mallorca, and the worry of the government is that such an extreme level of activity is simply not sustainable, hence the “Bienvenido Turismo Sostenible” (Welcome to sustainable tourism) initiative which was unveiled.

There is little doubt that those arriving in Mallorca this weekend will be made welcome, but at the same time there is thought to be a real possibility of a limit to visitor numbers being imposed as Mallorca seeks to avoid reaching saturation point. For some this would be akin to killing the goose that laid the golden egg, but those in favour of imposing restrictions would argue that the golden egg has become too large to eat and is now causing indigestion!

Still on the subject of tourism, good news for visitors to Barcelona is that restoration work has now been completed at the “Sala Hipóstila” in the Park Güell in Barcelona, one of the city’s most important tourist attractions: among the decorative items are four “suns” on the ceiling which were created by Antoni Gaudí and his colleague Josep María Jujol using old wine glasses, stained glass plates, bottle tops and the like, and which have now been restored to their full glory.

One of the main tourist attractions on Friday night, though, is available all over the country: cast your eyes upwards into the night sky and witness the 500 shooting stars per hour of the Perseid meteor shower! 

Basque separatism

The big political news this week in the Basque Country was that Arnaldo Otegi, who was released in February after six and a half years in prison for belonging to ETA, has announced that he intends to stand as the candidate for the presidency of the regional government for the EH Bildu party at the regional election during the autumn, despite officially being barred from holding public office for a period of 16 years.

In a defiant statement made at the weekend Sr Otegi affirmed that neither the courts, nor the State, nor the Guardia Civil nor the Spanish army will prevent him from standing as a candidate for the post of “lehendakari” in the Basque parliament at the vote which is to be held on 25th September.

Local fiestas all over Spain

Among the annual fiestas in the news this week was the annual recreation of the Viking raids which created fear among locals in centuries gone by  in the Pontevedra coastal town of Catoira, with hundreds of people taking part in an event which has been awarded.

It has become customary in the tourist sector to refer to the increasing numbers of Scandinavian visitors to Spain as the “Viking Invasion”, but in Catoira the phrase has taken on a different meaning as every year on the first Sunday in August tall, blond, robust invaders take the village by storm, clad in their stereotypical horned helmets.

Also in the north of the country, this year’s fiestas in honour of the Virgen Blanca in Vitoria (Basque Country) featured the traditional “Aurresku” Basque dance performed by three local Town Hall councillors, providing a spectacular image of the kind not normally associated with the business of local government! 

On the downside of the many fiestas being held all over Spain, the small town of Montillana in the north of the province of Granada is in mourning this week after a firework accident during the annual fiestas on Sunday caused the tragic death of a 5-year-old boy.

Crime and punishment

The Policía Nacional, in collaboration with Interpol, have arrested five members of a “Pink Panther”-style band of thieves who compiled a booty worth over 400,000 euros in just 48 seconds from a jewelry store in the up-market Gracia district of Barcelona.

Also in Catalunya, the Mossos d’Esquadra confiscated 15 kilograms of marijuana which was discovered in packages hidden inside a piece of furniturewhich had been packed for shipment to Italy.

At the other end of the country, two employees of a company at the port of Algeciras in the province of Cádiz have been placed under arrest by the Policía Nacional after it was found that they had attempted to allow 350 kilograms of cocaine into Spain hidden among a legal shipment of bananas from Ecuador. Later in the week the port was back in the headlines when the Guardia Civil and the Spanish customs authorities have seized a shipment of 809 firearms which were bound for the USA, including 737 assault rifles and 72 grenade launchers made in Switzerland which had been transported from Ghana. 

Shock of the week, though, goes to a German man in in Gran Canaria who inherited a bungalow in the Playa del Inglés area of Maspalomas, in the south of the island. He made an unnerving discovery on Monday when he decided to undertake a clean-out of the property and it turned out that the freezer of the house he had inherited contained the dead body of a man who is believed to have been the ex- partner of the former owner.

Illegal immigration

Every year the arrival of the fairground attractions for the annual fiestas in the enclave of Ceuta, on the north African coast alongside the Strait of Gibraltar, is anticipated with enthusiasm by many of the people who live there, but for a few the departure of the fairground machinery is even more eagerly awaited. 

This is because for those seeking to make their way across the Mediterranean into mainland Spain the shipping of such large items presents an opportunity to stow away on the cargo ships transporting the rides, and this year was no exception. With years of experience under their belts the security forces in the enclave are wise to the favoured locations of the stowaways, and the tightening of their preventative measures appears to be having the desired effect of making the trip less attractive to desperate illegal immigrants.

This year, though, “only” 28 people were detained while attempting to secrete themselves among the fairground attractionsin the policing operation which ended on Tuesday in Ceuta, compared to 42 last year, whereas a decade ago the number rose to an astonishing 363.

Spectacular cliff-face rescue in Mallorca

A 58-year-old construction worker was rescued from the cliff face of Camp de Mar in the Mallorca municipality of Andratx on Tuesday after jumping at the last moment from the cab of his digger before it plunged into the sea below. He frantically clung onto branches which were protruding from the cliffs as the ground gave way beneath him and the machine crashed into the Mediterranean, and he was successfully airlifted from the scene and taken to hospital for treatment.

This man was one of the lucky ones, but at the same time spare a thought for the 63-year-old female resident of a home in Chirivel, in the province of Almería, who died on Tuesday evening after a malfunction in her electric wheelchair caused the motor to catch fire and she suffered severe burns.

Spanish property news

The most recent official residential property sales figures in Spain, which relate to the month of June, reveal further consolidation of the market’s recovery, which appears to be unaffected by the continuing failure of the country’s politicians to form a national government.

During June a total of 36,856 transactions were registered, 19.4% more than in the same month last year, and the fact that this is part of a long-term trend rather than a one-off rise is demonstrated by the fact that the year-to-date total is now 16.4% higher than it was in June 2015, while the running 12-monthly total stands at almost 385,000, having risen by 14.7% over the last year and reached its highest level since August 2011.

The June total is the highest in any month since August 2010 apart from brief taxation-related “blips” in early 2011 and 2013, and represents a return to a level of activity of 100 sales per 100,000 inhabitants of purchasing age.

On a slightly different tack, work began last Friday in the municipality of Piélagos, in the northern coastal region of Cantabria, to demolish 214 homes which were built illegally in 2004 on the mountain of El Alto del Cuco, and which are the result of one of the most infamous cases of unscrupulous residential development in the area. Fortunately no purchasers are affected by the demolition in Pîélagos, as Fadesa has already paid back all monies received to those who bought the homes in good faith.

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