Torrevieja; first or last in league tables!

It’s not often that Torrevieja are ranked number one in Spain. However, when being number one relates to not being as Transparent in one’s public and financial dealings, that’s hardly a good sign. Thus was the finding this year from NGO Transparency International (España), who state that they are dedicated to fighting corruption at a national and international level.

And so, whichever way you look at it, Torrevieja came last (or top) in a league table of Spain’s 110 largest Towns from the survey. In much the same way that the late Mr. Blackwell’s list of the 10-worst dressed women was very much just a publicity stunt and had zero bearing on anything, this survey is not obligatory for Town councils to participate in. In fact, 18, or almost 20% of the towns sent the survey, chose not to participate. Thus, TI took it upon themselves to obtain as much information as possible through their own external assessment.

The survey (which one must remember Torrevieja Town Hall did not fill in) is based upon 80 different areas and including what information is available on the municipal website. Overall, the TI evaluation of Torrevieja put the town’s transparency rating at just 17.5%, with the average Town being 64%! Not a great result no matter which way one looks at it. 

Opposition Parties were quick to jump on the bandwagon and state that Torrevieja should make an effort to make all dealings relating to town planning, public works, urban development projects information on the Town Plan (PGOU), municipal work, investment, income and costs. Torrevieja, as the fifth largest City in the Valencian community may just not have the manpower to commit to such a survey, especially with so many public works underway at the moment. One of the Mayor’s policies is for the council to operate with much more transparency, so hopefully this shall result in a better league placing in 2010! 

Torrevieja too noisy for some

 

First we had the case of the Church bell in Almoradi that was to be silenced each night due to Acoustic Contamination laws and one resident complaint. Now the Torrevieja Town Hall will have to pay out 12,000 euros to a number of local residents who have been complaining about the noise levels from local restaurants, pubs and nightclubs, in the area around Avenida de las Habaneras. Some residents claimed to have suffered from many sleepless nights for almost 12-years.

It seems that some of the fault can clearly be laid at the door of the Town Council as they have failed to comply with anti-noise legislation. The Town Hall launched an appeal against an initial judgement by the Alicante Provincial Court but this was rejected by The Valencia High Court of Justice, TSJCV and so some local residents will now receive 12,000 € compensation plus the knowledge that anti-noise legislation will now be enforced.

Torrevieja Town Hall pointed out that the residents concerned live above bars and discos and that they should have been aware of the possibility of higher noise levels from tourist establishments before purchasing their properties. The area concerned is located in a tourist zone close to a couple of Torrevieja’s busiest beaches.

Confusion reigns over SIP and EHIC cards in the Valencian Community.

Some expats living on the Costa Blanca are in a state of perplexity as to what health coverage they shall be entitled to in 2010, to whom they should be applying to and what card they are entitled to carry.

As of March 1st 2010, new regulations shall come into place that may affect those who receive long-term incapacity benefits, a state pension or free healthcare under the present E121 system. At the moment the UK Government front all costs for health cover provided by the Spanish authorities however proposed changes to the system will mean that people who are in receipt of this service will now have to obtain their EHIC cards from the relevant UK authority.

Authorities in Newcastle have been telling Valencian Community SIP Card holders that they can apply for a replacement card in Spain. The information handed out in Spain would beg to differ. At present, Torrevieja residents cannot apply for an EHIC card locally, they have to travel to either Elche or Oriheula to submit their application.

The good news is that those who do not receive the above benefits from the UK and hold a current SIP Card can apply for their EHIC card in Spain upon presentation of their SIP plus proof of identity.

To add even more confusion, in early 2009 the Valencian Community stated that they would no longer be offering free healthcare for early retirees. Nothing seems to have been done to implement this scheme leaving many expats in a health cover no-man’s land.

I hope all of that makes perfect sense to you! One thing is certain, after March 1^st there is bound to be confusion and upset caused to some expats, who are unable to obtain a definitive answer to their questions and concerns over health cover.

TV Wars continue in Torrevieja

TV Wars continue in Torrevieja.

 

If the likes of EastEnders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Top Gear disappeared from TV screens across the Southern Costa Blanca tomorrow; what would your reaction be? Shock! Horror! Indignation! Maybe all of these but for most, not surprise.

 

Back in August 2008, Spain’s largest rebroadcasting company, Telmicro Levante was raided and closed down by officers of the Guardia Civil. Since then rumours and allegations have been rife about inside dealings, mafia connections, political pressure groups and conspiracy theories. With the court system in Alicante Province under extreme pressure, with no end in sight, the legal case against the owners and staff of Telmicro Levante has not been heard yet.

 

In the meantime, Telmicro have launched a counter case against rival Torresat. They have also been given permission to re-open the legal aspects of their business and to rebroadcast any ‘legal channels’. Telmicro have stated that during the run up to the last local election, Torresat tried to put pressure on Telmicro by asking them to add local programming and to run party political broadcasts, which they refused to do. The end result was that Telmicro was closed down and their equipment dismantled. In the meantime, competitors in the shape of Torresat, Superbeam, Simusat and others have benefited by increasing their client base. To further confuse the issue, Sumusat have started rebroadcasting to an estimated 15,000 clients from the old offices of Telmirco. It’s unclear and unsubstantiated if there is any connection between the ownership of Telmicro and this new start-up.

 

A year ago, it was estimated that Telmicro had between 50,000 to 70,000 subscribers. With a subscription rate of 20 euros per month, it is possible that earnings were in excess of a million euros per month, an attractive amount, for organised crime and political parties to take an interest in. There has been talk in the press indicating that the reason that Telmicro was closed down was because of inaccurate paperwork, dual book-keeping, tax dodging, missing signatures, lack of the correct licenses and even the illegal rebroadcasting of subscription TV services. Until the case reaches court, these facts shall probably not be officially revealed

 

The one common denominator of all these rebroadcasting companies is that they rebroadcast Free To Air (FTA) television signals however; none of them seem to be able to provide legal paperwork stating that they have paid for the rights from each and every one of the FTA channels to do so. BBC and ITV have stated that they do not have the rights to sell on their own channel rebroadcasting rights as they themselves negotiate rates with hundreds of individual production companies for the UK rights and these do not cover Europe. Confused? No wonder it’s taking so long to come to the Spanish Court system!

 

The case in point is that it’s not illegal to rebroadcast FTA channels. It’s perfectly legal to charge for the equipment, a maintenance contract and upgrades. As an individual or a community, many have installed large satellite dishes that can pick up the majority of English Language TV stations. Some individuals have installed small one-metre dishes which provide limited news, kids, sports and entertainment in English and other languages.

 

The problems stem from making a profit from charging monthly subscriptions for such a service. The grey area seem to be the understanding, or lack of it, as to what constitutes a ‘legal channel’. Ask those in the UK what a ‘legal’ channel is and they will mostly say “one that all rights or production has been paid for”.

 

The first nail in the rebroadcasting coffin may be that the Spanish Secretary of Telecommunications is now aware of the rebroadcasting of the Torresat Group amongst others and that the distributor Filmax is considering taking action against those using their content without the correct licences in place. 

 

Who needs boring old soap operas and reruns of classic British Telly when it all happens right here on our door step. In the meantime, don’t be surprised to learn that this is not the last you shall hear of ‘Torregate’ and that the only way that you can sure of not losing your English Language telly anytime in the future, is to obtain your signal through a satellite dish or a legal Internet service.

 

Keith Nicol

Torrevieja's desalination plant to suffer a further two year delay

Since it was first announced, Torrevieja’s desalination plant has been one of controversy. Not wanted and objected to by local and regional government, the plant was pushed forward by the newly elected PSOE government as a way to provide much needed water, strangely not so much to Torrevieja but primarily as drinking water and for agricultural land in Murcia and inland. 

 It now seems that the 250 million euro project may be delayed a further two years due to the lack of sufficient power to operate the plant! From the outset sceptics noted that for an estimated two-and-a-half-million euros per month (building the plant, removal of waste mater plus operational costs over a 17-year period), the money could have been put to better use diverting water from the Ebro Valley or even shipping in water by the tanker load, on a regular schedule, from as far away as Alaska!

 As with other similar plants, it has an estimated seventeen-year lifespan and environmental concerns have been raised due to the issue of building so close to the salt lakes and pumping waste into the Mediterranean! Whilst in power, the PP set their sights on diverting water from the Ebro to the Murcian region. To many this made sense as the Ebro Valley floods annually. However, a political deal was struck by President Zapatero ensuring those of the Ebro Valley that their water would not be diverted in order to obtain their votes. 

 Información newspaper reports that the plant requires its own electricity sub-station plus a high-tension line to be laid eight kilometres from San Miguel de Salinas to Torrevieja! It’s common knowledge that desalination plants around the world need a huge amount of power to operate, in fact, they require more power in than the City of Torrevieja uses itself! So it may come as a surprise to learn that apparently planning permission has not been sought for the new high tension lines to run across country, which shall not only take time to lay but have a disruptive effect on local transportation and the environment!

The new desalination plant will be largest in Europe (2^nd largest in the World) when it comes into operation. State company Acuamed recently announced that the plant would be operational before the end of 2009 but it now seems that 2010 or even 2011 may be a more realistic time scale.