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HUGE debts are accumulating in hundreds of communities of residents living in apartment complexes in Almería where owners are obliged to contribute to the general maintenance and upkeep of the buildings and surrounding areas. Although community fees vary enormously, individual yearly payments can amount to hundreds of euros in some cases, and combined with unemployment levels in the province many residents are struggling or finding it impossible to pay. New figures released by LDC, a company that specialises in community administration, put the amount owed at 12.3 million euros in Almería province alone, involving more than 3,000 apartment complexes, where one or more residents are in debt to the community - with an average outstanding debt of 124 euros per person.

Palma de Majorca.—75 percent of traders said that despite the Christmas season, December had been a worse month for them than it had been in 2010.
Some 21 percent taking part in Majorca’s small to medium-sized business association’s (Pimeco)monthly survey said that takings hadn’t changed a great deal since December last year, and just 4 percent said that business had improved. Research by the association was carried out amongst clothes, shoes and accessory retailers.

THE REGIONAL health council has announced that residents who lose, break or have their SIP cards stolen will have to pay three euros to have them replaced. Health councillor Luis Rosado said that this was a way of making residents co-responsible for the health system although he refused to be drawn on the subject of whether or not people will have to pay each time they visit the doctor under the 'copago' system.At present, the Valencia regional government spends around 900,000 euros a year on issuing replacement cards and by charging three euros for new ones it intends to claw this money back.

A New grant scheme for the exchange of Central Heating boilers began on 13th Oct. Only one boiler grant is allowed per person and is available subject to the installer removing your old boiler for correct disposal. Registered installers are listed on the pages of the Aven website at www.aven.es. but for more information contact 100% Plumbing SL on 96 5835939. Hurry though! The scheme is due to end on 30th March 2012 but only whilst funds last!

HOMEOWNERS in Alicante Province are facing the prospect of seeing their annual IBI tax bill rise by up to 10 per cent this year as the government announced new measures to combat the crisis.Out of the 141 municipalities that make up the province, 90 will increase IBI payments and those people who own properties with high rateable values will be most affected. Nine out of 10 towns will increase IBI tax in 2012 and 2103 by between 4% and 10%.

THE much vaunted Gata Residencial urbanisation in Gata de Gorgos has become something of a fantasy after the council said this week that only 500 out of the projected 996 properties had been built and that at least 300 of those had not been sold. The project to build this major urbanisation began in 2001 but a few years into the build, the developer, Jubesa SL, went into liquidation and work ground to a halt.

Two very nice properties to rent on the Costa Blanca.

WHAT was once the accepted practice of building homes on the side of Cabo de Sant Antoni, Cabo Nau, Ambolo and La Granadella in Ja´vea is now a thing of the past after the regional environment council issued orders to prohibit the practice.In a document sent to Jávea council, limits have been imposed that now make it impossible to build in these areas.

REGIONAL president Alberto Fabra announced in his New Year's speech that he intends to push through further cuts of 1,000 million euros during 2012 in a bid to get the Valencia government's accounts out of the red and into the black. Sr Fabra also promised beleaguered suppliers that all outstanding bills would be paid to them while at the same time he would be creating 15,000 jobs for young people.

THE HEADS of the various services offered at the Marina Baja hospital in Villajoyosa, said this week that they need between 70 to 100 more beds to cover the needs of patients in the zone. They have voiced their concerns over the matter to the head of the regional health council in a letter which outlines what they see as being the hospital's major deficiencies. Hospital department heads are all agreed that the medical facility needs to be expanded with some urgency and that this process would be quicker than building a second hospital in the zone.

BRITISH holidaymakers love Jávea, Dénia and Moraira - in fact, the north Costa Blanca is one of their top 10 favourite summer destinations. A recent survey by holiday lettings website, www.homeaway.es, found that UK residents seeking a sunny break opt for Spain above anywhere else. Their number one choice is Málaga, followed by Mallorca, revealed the final count. Ibiza came sixth - behind London, Tuscany and Nice.

Anyone paying more than 10€ per month for a gas deposit (large tank) should contact 100% plumbing for a free replacement tank

Spanish police risked a major diplomatic row by chasing suspected smugglers into Gibraltar's waters and trying to arrest them just feet from the Rock.

TURRE’S main opposition party stormed out of a plenary meeting last week after a row broke out over the council’s parlous financial state. Mayor Arturo Grima was about to read out an end-of-year report on the council’s finances when PSOE councillors Francisco Ortega and Rodrigo Sánchez, who ran the council until last May, walked out in protest.

USING the troubled Vera-Cartagena toll road became more expensive for drivers this week after the company running the loss-making venture announced the biggest price increase in two years. The new charges came into effect on January 1 and are in line with a 3.2 per cent rise in toll road fees throughout the country. The increase is above the 2.9 per cent inflation rate and more than doubles the previous charge hike which came into effect last year.

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THE spat over the future of Albox fire station heated up this week when the firemen’s union joined the fray by accusing the local mayor of putting fire fighters’ lives at risk. Albox mayor Jose García Navarro last week called on county council (Diputación) to come up with urgent funds to keep the station running, claiming that as 26 other towns also benefit from the service they should contribute towards its upkeep.

A 76-YEAR-OLD woman who was evicted from her home in early December chained herself for hours inside a city bank last week in a bid to highlight her plight. Pensioner Angeles Belmonte, from Níjar, became so desperate at being evicted from her home due to defaulting on her mortgage payments that she took matters into her own hands and broke back into her house illegally.

A 33-YEAR-OLD Russian woman was shot dead by her Spanish partner, a man aged 61, at their home in Roquetas del Mar last week.The man subsequently killed himself, leaving the couple’s seven-year-old son an orphan. The tragedy happened at about midday on Boxing Day in a flat on the Avenida del Mediterráneo, the main street in the town.

THE Algarrobico hotel saga took an unexpected new twist last week when the mayor of Carboneras announced he would be inviting all the affected parties to thrash out an agreement over the future of the ill-fated building. The hotel has lain abandoned since a judge ruled it illegal and ordered a halt to construction work in February 2006. Ecologists also claim the huge 21-storey complex was built inside the protected Cabo de Gata nature park.

THE NATIONAL ministry for equality has refused to grant Asprodalba, the disabled facility in Vera, the 150,000-euro subsidy it was seeking to carry out essential repairs to the centre.In a telephone interview, Ignacio Martín, the director of the association which helps 75 mentally handicapped young adults, confirmed that the government had refused to reconsider its decision to allocate the funding to another association, as reported in this paper three weeks ago. “We are very disappointed, but we will not give up the fight – we are demonstrating against the decision which is completely unjust,” he said.

The mayor of Arboleas, Cristóbal Garcia, is seeking urgent resolution of the town’s planning conflict, after revealing this week that 72 per cent of homes are situated on unconsolidated urban land. According to the current PSA (socalist party of Andalucia) administration the problem arose when the 2001 town plan was reportedly cancelled by the previous PSOE (socialist party) council in 2009, and the proposed replacement was not accepted by the provincial planning authorities.

SINCE THE new local development plan (PGOU) came into effect in Marbella in May 2010 a thousand properties have been legalised. The PGOU has allowed for the legalisation of some 16,500 properties that were deemed to be on the margin of the law that were constructed during the GIL and immediate post-GIL eras. In 2011 six hundred homes plus an office complex were made legal. The latter will from January house Marbella's town planning delegation.

WEALTHIER residents of Alhaurín de la Torre are to pay more for their rubbish collection after the town hall last week approved a change that will see the residential rubbish rate linked to assessed home values. The council on Thursday approved increases to the town's water, sewer and rubbish rates, which it said was necessary to "guarantee the provision of quality basic services, maintain the necessary investment in infrastructure and compensate for the large cut in revenues from the state". For water, the town hall says the price increase matches inflation, at around three per cent, while for the sewer and rubbish rates the structure has been changed, meaning varying increases for different ratepayers.

THE HORRIFIC attack happened outside a pizza takeaway in Fuengirola on the night of Boxing Day but the National Police are still searching for the perpetrator or perpetrators. A 29-year-old Argentinean was the victim of a knife or axe attack that left his left hand completely severed. He was eventually taken to the Virgen del Rocio hospital in Sevilla where specialist surgeons carried out a 14-hour operation to put back his hand. First he was taken to the Carlos Haya in Málaga at 23.30 on the Monday night but then he was transferred to the Sevilla medical centre where four traumatologists, several plastic surgeons and two anaesthetists battled to save his hand. How successful the operation has been will be known in the coming days.

THE new Partido Popular government has announced austerity cuts of 8.9 billion euros, and more are on the way, with promises that the savings for 2012 will total 16.5 billion euros after the budget is announced in March. The package announced last week also includes income and other tax hikes aimed at raising 6.2 billion euros in additional revenues. The measures were approved at a cabinet meeting last Friday, after which spokesperson and deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría warned that the budget deficit for 2011 is expected to be eight per cent of GDP, 20 billion euros more than the target of six per cent agreed with the EU by the outgoing socialist administration. The target for 2012 is 4.4 per cent.

DESPITE announcing last week that the price of butane gas and electricity would not be going up in the New Year, the country awoke on Monday morning to the news that IBI tax, natural gas, public transport, personal taxation and mortgage rates are all set to rise.

65-year-old Briton arrested in Calvia Mallorca . the woman who lived in Calvia, is alleged to have permitted the abuse of her three young children in the 70s and 80s by her partner. Apparently, the couple would take the three young daughters on overseas holidays and this is when the abuse would take place with the mother’s full consent. But, while her partner was arrested a few years ago and sentenced to life in jail, only to later hang himself, the 65-year-old mother managed to skip the country and had been allegedly on the run until Wednesday, when Interpol issued an international arrest warrant.

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Two very nice properties to rent on the Costa Blanca.