Cost of Opening Licences

In response to the question on the A Spanish Life Forum, I have made enquiries with the Town Hall in Elche and in Benidorm for the purposes of comparison. This year Elche Town Hall has reduced the cost of a new Opening Licence. for areas that are suffering economically, such a La Marina Village. The original cost for a bar/cafeteria licence was €1450 plus IVA. The current cost has been reduced by 50% to €725 plus IVA. . the costs of an Opening Licence is dependent on population and the estimated disturbance coming from the particular business. Therefore the cost of such a licence in Benidorm is €1750 plus IVA. Of course this does not take into account any fees charged by a lawyer or Gestor. There can be an additional cost to a bar if they wish to place tables and chairs outside their premises. This cost varies from area to area, but is around €25 per table. This allows the bar owner this facility for 12 months . So unless the Town Halls in Elche and Benidorm are telling me lies, I have to assume that the figures above are correct.

And is comments re the charity walk for Impact Charity

Andi, normally you are quite accurate with many of you comments, but when you stated that only Paulino walked the walk, I have to point out that Conchi the councillor for Social Services also did the walk, I escorted the group on the first lap supplying water and oranges, paid out of my own pocket, then I joined the group in the second lap. There was no sponsorship from any of the other councillors, because he never asked or informed them that he was participating. Also to clarify another point, there are 17 councillors and it is only nine who are in the Town Hall. As sponsorship is a bit of an alien concept to many Spanish people, I doubt even if they had known about the "Sponsored Walk" if they would have contributed.

Bars and licences

The subscriber who wrote on A Spanish Life, regarding 45 bars and only 30 with opening licences. Over the last five months! individuals, be they bar owners, or members of the public have called the Police more than 70 times? Resulting in Denuncias being issued. In the same period there have been no Denuncias issued in Rojales and Torrevieja. When a Denuncia is issued a copy is sent to Valencia. This has resulted in members of the National Police Autonomica, being sent by Valencia to our little town to check on the licences of all the bars. As has been said before, some bars have been operating without their licence being complete . The Town Hall has been aware of this for some time, but it has been the bars that have put their heads above the parapet and have attracted the attention of Valencia. Many of the Denuncias have come from bars without licences, taking revenge on the other bars who have live music. We the Town Hall have suggested that they stop their inter bar bickering and form a Bar Owners Association, to regulate themselves. We have even offered to help set the Association up. We can categorically state that we have no intention of closing any bars, but if those bars that continually flaunt the law and attract attention to themselves. They can expect further visits from the Autonomical Police, who do have the power to close them down. We have issued guide lines at our meetings with the bars, in order to keep disturbances to the neighbours to a minimum. But if a rival bar complains out of jealousy, then we and the police are duty bound to act on their complaint. I will not say that we will turn a blind eye to music in bars, but if we are unaware that a bar has music on, we will not be hunting them out. I would also say that many bar owners took on bars without doing their homework. They have taken out cheaper licences that are totally inappropriate for the type of business they wish to conduct. Also new owners have been duped by previous owners as to previous requirements issued to them, before they received their opening licence. Now some of the new owners find that they have to have essential work carried out, such as disabled access to toilets, before their opening licence will even be considered. As far as the cost of an opening licence is concerned, the costs vary depending on what type of licence is required. I would be interested to have documentary proof that La Marina village only pays €25. Perhaps that is for a straight forward renewal of a current licence, but I cannot see that it would be as little as that for a new business or a new ownership. Remember even a fruit shop has to apply for an opening licence, you would not expect to pay the same for that as a bar wishing to have live music. On a final note on this subject, the fiesta to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, the August Fiesta and the Rock festival are still on track and will go ahead.

Diamond Jubilee celebrations

The timetable for the above event is as follows:
1400 hrs until 1500 hrs the Sanfulgencio Band will play a selection of Jazz, Big Band sounds etc.
1515 hrs until 1600 hrs there will be presentations of prizes to the Bowlers and Padel Tennis
Galician Pipers and Drummers will play traditional Spanish music
The Shamrockers from Javea are playing a mixture of Traditional Scottish and Irish Music
Patti Ross and band will perform well known songs from the era of the reign of the Queen
Lucinda will perform various types of music including some favourite Rock Ballads.
DJ Richie Sparks will finish off the evening with pop music through the ages.
Spectrum FM will cover the event on an Outside Broadcast.
Live coverage of the Royal Procession of Barges down the Thames

How to get a Doctors appointment on line

This information has come from a friend who has a property on La Marina. If you have access to the Internet, you can make an appointment using the following method. I have just done so and it works.

I, and many others around where I live, have used this method over the past few months. It is very easy.
http://www.san.gva.e...d/homeciud.html
Once you have the website open proceed as follows.
On the left hand side, click on:
Sanitat24: Solicitud de Cita Previa en atención primaria
On the sub-menu, click on:
Cita por Internet
Enter your SIP number (or, if it’s got more than eight digits, enter the last eight), and your date of birth.
Click Validar.
Put a blob by MEDICINAR FAMILIAR.
Click Seleccionar.
The next screen confirms the name of your Doctor and indicates today's date.
Change the date shown to the preferred date of your appointment, then enter between which timings you require (24 hour clock with ":" between hours and mins.).
Then press "Pedir cita."
Next screen gives a date and a choice of timings.
Check the date, tick the appointment time you prefer and press "confirmar cita."
Job done.
You can also print-out the confirmation.

Not, another Councillor

May I take this opportunity to clarify what is being said about another Councillor. The number of Councillors remain the same. The Councillor for Fiestas and Social Services and Health, was working part time with Cruz Roja and part time on her council duties. Under Spanish Law it is illegal for a Councillor to occupy two jobs full time and claim full time wages from both. Therefore when the duties required in her role as Councillor started to overwhelm her duties with Cruz Roja, she resigned from Cruz Roja to be able to concentrate fully on her Councillor duties. This in turn has prompted  the ruling Council to vote in favor of increasing the wages of the Councillor for Fiestas and Social Services and Health, to fall in line with that of the other full time councillors. This will mean that she will recieve approximately another €900 per month before taxes.
As far as the comment about €500,000 being paid out in council salaries. According to my calculations it is closer to €375,000. It should be remembered that all the Councillors, including the Mayor, took substantial pay cuts when we assumed office.
As far as the allegation that services have been cut, apart from re utilising the vehicle used as an animal ambulance, all services are still in place. Some of those services have been taken over by other companies who are providing the same and in some cases, better services for less money. It is always a priority in these times to get best value for money, therefore if this requires the renegotiation of contracts or new contracts by the Town Hall, then it will be done for the benefit of all.

The state of the streets

Someone commented on A Spanish Life forum, about the state the roads and pavements were getting into because of trees and weeds taking over. The good news is that last week, the councillor for the gardens etc., Paulino Herrero, travelled around the Urb. with the maintenance manager for the Municipality. They highlighted many areas that required priority. The new team of gardeners and maintenance engineers, start this week and it is hoped that before the main summer influx of visitors, there will be a marked improvement in the area. If you think that your area is particularly bad, please call in to our office on Calle Madrid No. 5 and we will take note and pass it on to the the new company to try and have your area prioritised.