Bars and cars

The other day, the Mayor along with Councillors Herrero and Wiszniewski and the officer in charge of the Policia Nacional Autonomico and the chief of the Policia Local invited all the bar owners in the Urb to a meeting at the Social Centre. The reason to explain why the Policia Nacional were in the area.
It was explained that following complaints to Valencia, that a large number of bars were operating, without opening licences or proper safety certificates, they were instructed to investigate.
Currently there are 34 licensed premises. Of those , only 14 have full opening licenses.
The National Police  were also checking that every bar had personal liability insurance for the maximum number of patrons allowed. Certified and functioning fire extinguishers and fire exits were kept clear and clearly signed. Also they were ensuring that there is no selling of alcohol to persons under 18 years . No person under 18 is permitted to be on licensed premises without adult supervision.
  They were not checking into the subject of music in bars. This will be down to the Policia Local.

Bars that do not have Opening Licences, must show that they are in the process of obtaining it and require to have a Certificate of Responsibility, obtainable from the Town Hall.

Speed limits. According to my most recent conversation with our Chief of Police, he stated that the local police patrols will be equipped with hand held radar devices and they would continue to operate them for the next two months.  I have no idea where or when they will deploy them, but only that they will.

30KPH

It never ceases to amaze me how some people claim to know all about the law, particularly when it concerns speed limits. If these knowitalls would care to search the Internet they would actually find that when an area is designated as residential the maximum suggested speed limit is 30KPH and where there are special circumstances ,it can be reduced to 25KPH. In fact there are moves being made to make the 30KPH limit standard throughout Europe for built up area.

European Citizen´s Initiative "30kmh – making streets liveable!"

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Declaration of assets in another country.

In  October 2012 a law was passed in Madrid stating that all residents in Spain had to declare to the Spanish Tax Authorities, Assets valued at more than €50,000 . This included property, bonds , pensions and savings. This came into effect in April of this year. Failure to do so, could result in heavy fines and sequestration of assets. As a result of this law, which was designed to catch out individuals who have been defrauding the Spanish Authorities for years, it also caught out many foreign residents who have legitimate savings and properties in their country of birth. This has already caused several residents to give up their home in Spain and return to the UK.
As the President of PIPN, I was extremely concerned about this new legislation. I was contacted by several action groups throughout the Costa Blanca and the Balearics and asked to support a motion to force the Spanish Government to have a moratorium on this Law.  I presented this motion at the last Plenary meeting of the Town Council . It was passed by a majority, with Trinidad Martinez and the rest of PSOE voting against the motion and Mariano Marti Sanchez, Mark Lewis and the rest of his party abstaining.
  Despite the fact that this Law was passed by the Partido Popular government in Madrid , the local Partido Popular, supported the motion.
The representative from the Town Hall in Palma , Mallorca , has also lodged a motion against this Law, with the European Parliament .
As a result of our actions, the Spanish government in Madrid, have agreed to meet a delegation from the action group, this coming month.
I hope that we will be successful in having this Law amended so as not to cause unnecessary financial  hardship to the resident extranjeros in San Fulgencio and the rest of Spain.

Speed limits and other stuff

Well it's been a while, but its been a busy time. I understand that some people are concerned about the 30 kilometre  signs appearing on the Urb. Why they are concerned, baffles me. This is a built up area and the need for safe driving is essential. Only in the last two weeks, I have had two near misses, due to individuals driving too fast and being unable to stop at the junction. I did manage to get the registration numbers, and guess what, they were hire cars, being used by holiday makers. One person stated that they were unable to drive their vehicle at under 30KPH. I would submit, that if you cannot drive within the limit, then you possibly should not be driving at all. Or, maybe, being fined and your licence endorsed will convince you that you can drive at this speed.
Bars and Restaurants.
Last year, along with the Chief of Police, myself , the Mayor and Councillor Herrero, had several meetings with Bar Owners. The purpose of this was to explain the rules about licences. The most important of these being the opening licence. At this time, out of the 48 bars/restaurants only 16 had their opening licence. This week we have seen the arrival again of the POLICIA NACIONAL AUTONOMICA. They will be here all next week also. I had a meeting with the inspector in charge today. In his words, he stated that the state of the bars/restaurants in this area was a disaster, with only 3 bars getting their opening licences in the last year. Why so few? The majority of the owners have failed to comply with the requirements from the Technico Department of the Town Hall. Inspections reveal that there are no fire exits, no extinguishers, no disabled access, fire exits being blocked, no insurances etc. There have already been several Denunciations, they have 15 days to rectify their premises. Failure to do so, may result in a fine up to €30,000 . Yes, this is not a misprint .
The Policia Nacional Autonomica are coming to a bar near you, so be warned , AGAIN.
For those bars and restaurants that have all their paperwork in order, they are very happy, because it will mean that as the illegal bars are closed down, due to infringements or being unable to pay the fines, they will get the business and the extra revenue.

Bully Boy Tactics

I am absolutely disgusted with certain individuals who subscribe to some of the local forums. They are not content with attacking me as a Councillor, some, even as an individual. But to start attacking members of my staff, by issuing vitriolic attacks on them and their families, is akin to the tactics of one Joseph Goebels.
I absolute refute and deny any claims that any person recieves favours or considerations because they are related to people who work with me. This relates to Mr Richie Sparks who runs a legal Community Radio Station. He advertises many of the Community events that the Ayuntamiento and the Offices for the Urbanisation, promote. He also advertises for anyone who informs him of Community events.
In his capacity as a friend of mine and as the partner of Sam, he has on many occaisions, volunteered his time and services for free, because he believes in promoting a Community Spirit. If some of the people did one tenth of what Richie does for the Community, they would not have time to hide behind pseudonymns and write such trash in the forums. I know the persons behind some these pseudonymns and if I was a gossip monger, I could certainly spill a few beans about them, but that would only make me a shallow minded individual. I am better than that and so are the many people whom I regard as friends.

A reminder

It would seem that a few people have short memories. When a council inherits more than NINE million Euros of debt, it is extremely difficult to come up with new projects that do not cost a fortune to implement. So for those who moan about the appearance that nothing is being done, perhaps they should realise that that in an effort to reduce the debt, many of the original contracts had to be re negotiated. This may give the appearance that we are treading water, but we are not sinking deeper into debt.
Here is a scenario for some to contemplate. What if Spain adopted similar system of council tax as they have in the UK. 7 years ago, when I was living in the UK , my Council Tax was £1500 per annum. At today's exchange rate, that's approximately €1800. Can you imagine if every household in Spain had to pay this. There would be so much money in the pot for all sorts of improvements. Such better services. Better amenities ,better job prospects, better standards of living all round. We could say goodbye to the debt. Just imagine 1200 property owners paying that amount each year. By my calculations that works out at    €2160000. Within four years  the council would be debt free. We could have a new school, street lights working all the time, streets and pavements free of weeds. We could have a library and more doctors and improved medical services. But there is only one thing wrong with this scenario, it would require a great deal of sacrifice from the residents. Which is impossible because many want their cake and to eat it too.
All the current taxation and SUMA payments that are collected by San Fulgencio, amount to just over 3 million euros each year. A little more than 4 million comes from the Government,( Alicante, Valencia and Madrid ). The current cost of maintaining what we have, comes to more than 8 million.  So you do the Maths. Without extra money coming from somewhere, where do the moaners expect it to come from. I think if you have an answer, perhaps you could forward it on the the Prime Ministers of Britain, Spain, Greece, Italy and Cyprus and then we in Europe can all get out of the financial crisis

Certificate of Registration

There is a lot of talk recently about Residencias also known as Certificates of Registration. The main question is " Do they require to be renewed after 5 years?" The answer from the offices of the Policia National in Torrevieja and Madrid is NO. The Certificate does not expire.
However, if you require to renew your SIP card, you may be asked to provide a new Certificate of Registration, as by doing so, you must now show proof of earnings or pension. This at the moment is the only reason you may be asked to renew your Residencia aka Certificate of Registration