Holidays for Pensioners

HOLIDAYS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

The Town Hall through the department of Social Services is taking names for Holidays in the Valencian Region for 2014.

Persons wishing to register, should contact the Social Services Dept. for an appointment on 966794517         or an appointment can be made through the Offices of the Concejalia de Urbanizaciones , 5 Calle Madrid, Marina Urb. San Fulgencio 966 443 002

Applications must be submitted before 20^th July 2013.

Something different? Bonfires of San Juan in Alicante

For those that have never witnessed this event, you should make an effort to travel through to Alicante. 
The attached is a direct lift from the Blog of Amanda Payne, but I thought it worthy of a wider audience-

The main fiesta on the Spain’s Costa Blanca in June is the Hogueras, celebrated in the week or so leading up to the Noche de San Juan on 24 June. Most of the towns in the Costa Blanca area join in the celebrations, but the biggest display by far is in the city of Alicante.
The festival owes its origins to pagan times and coincides with the summer solstice. Traditionally, old bits of furniture or other unused wood was burnt on bonfires. Nowadays, however, special creations, called “niñots,” are made depicting everything from cartoon characters to caricatures of local and national politicians, in a similar way to the Fallas celebration that takes place in March in Valencia.

 Niñots in the Streets of Alicante

 These are made by skilled craftsmen who spend all year coming up with the designs and building the models. They can cost thousands of Euros to make. The models are put on display in the streets of each town for a week or so prior to the 24th June. In Alicante, the models tend to be huge and very impressive. Prizes are awarded for the best ones and the winner is saved from destruction to go on display in the Hogueras museum.

 Next to each model is an open air café where people who have paid towards the building of that particular Hoguera (or Foguera in the local Valencian dialect) can sit and enjoy a drink or tapas during the festivities. Quite often patrons will get up and dance enthusiastically, either to bands or to piped music. These bars are called “barracas” and some are open to the general public too.

 Burning of the Hogueras

 Then on the big night, all the Hogueras are set on fire, accompanied by fireworks from the castle overlooking the city of Alicante and along the port area and the cheering of the crowds who usually end up with a soaking from the fire brigade who are on hand to make sure that everything stays more or less under control. The children especially enjoy that part of the proceedings!

 There are usually events such as giant paella making competitions, verbenas (open air dances) and competitions for the children during Hogueras week. A special beauty queen, called the “Belleza de Foc” (Beauty of the Fire) is chosen and she is expected to take a leading role in the fiesta plus continue with various civic duties through the year. Usually, the “Belleza” wears a traditional costume with a huge skirt and a lace “mantilla” or head-dress which are specially made and cost a fortune. There is also a junior “Belleza” and both are accompanied by two princesses.The festival is very popular with tourists and locals alike, with huge crowds in the streets and a week long party atmosphere. Not to be missed if you are going to be on the Costa Blanca in June.

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.