The Sierra Nevada, the Most Popular Ski-resort in Spain, has Opened its Pistes

Changes to the Álora Access Road Project

The Ayuntamiento of Álora recently presented a series of modifications to the improvement of the La Pista road to the Public Works Delegation of the Junta. Specifically, the council asked for the elimination of the two curves it considers dangerous on the new stretch, and the construction of a roundabout at the height of the municipal cemetery entrance which would improve the traffic flow into Álora. According to the mayor, Jose Sanchez, these modifications will be accepted shortly.  The works, which have a budget of 1.8 million euros, and were approved by the Junta at the beginning of this year can start. The works, as we have published before, affect a stretch of 7.6km form Zalea crossroads to the town and include the construction of a new bridge over the arroyo de Las Cañas and widening the carriageway.

Repair of the Canca Road

The repair of the Canca road (  property of Cuenca Mediteranea Andaluza -CMA  ) up to the Fuente has a budget of 60,000 euros. It is a fact that all the roads that join Álora with the outside world are the property of CMA, the old Confederacion Hidrografica del Sur, and now in the hands of the Junta. For that it is important that the CMA takes our town into account. In a recent visit to Álora, Antonio Rodriguez Leal, president of CMA, affirmed that his organisation is going to repair the Canca road, among other things. The total budget will be 60,000 euros and will asphalt more than a kilometre from the start on the main road to the busy Fuente de Canca. In the same zone there exists a project to construct an alternative route that would join La Pista road after its improvement with the Fuente Nueva area at the municipal cemetery.

Electricity for the Álora Districts of El Chaparral and Tio Geromo

The Ayuntamiento of Álora has put out to tender the works for the installation of a high tension line to electrify the areas of El Chaparral and Tio Geromo. The project has gone out to tender for the initial budget of 193,829 euros and the period for bids will end this month of December. If all goes to plan, could start at the beginning of next year.  The works form part of a joint project between the Ayuntamiento and the Diputacion that also includes the repair of roads and the opening of new wells in the oil pressing areas and could help the families that live in these scattered places.

Álora, Young Andalucian Municipality

The Junta has awarded Álora the title of “Young Andalucian Municipality”. To gain this mention, they have had to operate a series of services for youngsters, such as the Juvenile Information Centre, issue of youth card, various installations and programs for the promotion and training of the young. This declaration has the advantage of being able to obtain economic help for projects and to be included in the specific grants that the Junta award on this theme.  To mark the event a plaque was put up on the façade of the Casa Cultural of Álora and a press conference was held in the Salon de Actos.

Pedestrian Underpass for Motorway at Cártama

The works being carried out on the A402 under the A357 motorway will link the two principal centres of population, Estación de Cártama and Cártama Pueblo. The final result will be a grand avenue with two lanes in each direction, service roads, cycle lanes and pedestrian paths both sides to improve access. According to the mayor, Jose Garrido, “now the space under the bridge will be prepared when the works finish so that the people can walk or ride safely”.

El Camino del Rey

The most symbolic footway of Malaga province will be restored in 2007.  After many years of asking for intervention to preserve the Camino del Rey, located between Álora, Ardales, Campillos and Antequera, the Junta of Andalusia will urgently include a fund of 80,000 € to carry out a study for the renovation of the road.  The path, a service road, was built exactly a hundred years ago by the Central Eléctrica del Chorro and inaugurated by Alfonso XIII.  Today, the path is deteriorated and dangerous. 

Pizarra Urges its Citizens to Pick Up their Dogs Faeces

The Delegation of Social Wellbeing of the Ayuntamiento of Pizarra has begun a campaign to urge dog owners to pick up the droppings of their domestic animals in the street.  For this, they have already begun to distribute amongst the citizens, 5,000 special bags (  they can ask for these free in the Ayuntamiento  ) that the Consistorio has supplied for the purpose along with informative leaflets.

The Councillor of the area, Rosa Rubio, has stated that the collection of faeces on the part of the owner “it has many repercussions of the cleanliness of the municipality.  This initiative forms part of the campaign “Clean Pizarra”.

Cártama Municipality Will Take Charge of the Hospital

The mayor of Cártama, Jose Garrido, recently announced to the media that his Ayuntamiento will assume responsibility for speeding up the works on the future District Hospital. The agreement for financing the centre was unanimously approved with the abstention of the opposition (Solucion Independiente de Cártama). For the mayor this is the best way of speeding up the process so that the works can begin as soon as possible.
The Ayuntamiento, therefore, will take charge of pre-studies, the tendering process, and contracting the work once they can rely on the money that will come from the various administrations that are involved in this project. In this way the Ayuntamiento will construct the edifice to put at the disposal of the Health Service of Andalucia. The financial arrangement agreed is for the Diputacion Provincial to put up 7.2 million euros, the Health Service 5.9 million and the Ayuntamiento of Cartama 6.0 million. It is this last amount which is to come out of the municipal coffers which the opposition parties on the council dissent from. The agreement details the collaboration of the three organisations in carrying out the works, equipping the installations and getting the future hospital underway. The mayor was confident that the hospital would begin functioning in 2008 as predicted.

Also, the Ayuntamiento and the University of Málaga (  UMA  ) have recently signed an agreement whereby the council will give economic assistance to those students registered in the town that want to complete their studies abroad. The amount of help will depend on the duration of studies outside our frontiers and the students who solicit help will have to be recognised by UMA as interchange or international mobility students among other requirements. All those students interested in more info for this help can apply to the local Youth Councillor at the Ayuntamiento.

Christmas Run 2005 - Campillos

The Council Sports of the Ayuntamiento of Campillos has organized a Christmas Run 2005 for children, which will take place on 24 December.  This initiative is designed to promote sport among the young.  The race will take place in the extension of the Park José María Hinojosa, from 11:00 am.

Sierra Nevada Opens

The most popular ski-resort in Spain - The Sierra Nevada, has opened its pistes and so far reports a decent level of snowfall for this time of year. It is Europe’s southernmost ski resort, wonderfully close to Spain’s famous Mediterranean beach resorts but located by the Iberian peninsula’s highest summits. Sierra Nevada’s ‘resort’ village’, Pradollano is one of Europe’s highest, at an altitude of 2,100 meters. The resort is famous for staging the World Alpine Skiing Championships in 1996 after the event had to be cancelled when it was due to be staged there a year before because of lack of snow. Since then the resort has invested still further in its snow-making system, considered Spain’s largest and one of Europe’s best such facilities.

Junta Criticises Malaga City Hall

The Junta de Andalucia believes that Málaga city hall are not doing enough towards promoting the city as a candidate for European Cultural Capital for 2016. “They should be doing more,” said José Luis Marcos, representative for the regional government in Málaga province. He said that he gets the impression that Malaga's efforts, “Are more of an advertisement, than anything with any real content.”

In an interview with Europa Press, Marcos said that the city’s campaign should not only be, “Directed outwards, but most important of all, inwardly, to the people of Málaga themselves. The city,” he said, “Has to believe in itself, and believe itself capable of being the Cultural Capital. If that belief is not there, it becomes difficult to make others believe in it.”
Marcos believes that the city should already be working hard towards their goal, rejecting the view of City Hall, who he says, argue that there is plenty of time to plan Malaga's campaign as the candidate will not be chosen until 2012.

Foreigners Stretch Andalucia's Health Resources

The provinces health resources are being stretched by the number of foreigners requiring medical assistance. Malaga's Department of Health reported that figures to September of this year show that nearly 14 % of hospital consultations were made by non-Spanish patients, while the same group accounted for nearly 26 % of admissions and 27 % of emergency cases.

Malaga Province’s Population Grows

The population of Malaga province has been growing steadily over recent years, and is now just below 1.5 million.  Latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (  INE  ), show the population of the province up to January of 2005 was 1,453,409. The population of the Costa del Sol increased by 55,484 in 2004, a 3.97 % increase with respect to the results of the previous census in 2003, showing a population of 1,397,925. With an increase of 4 % over the past year, Malaga province, in terms of population, is now the fifth large in Spain, with a rise of 4 % from 2003 to 2004, which slowed down to 1.68 % from last year to this. Since 2000, the population of Malaga province has grown by 12 %, and now has 174,558 more inhabitants than at the beginning of the new century.

Winter Tourists

Spain was the country which welcomed most tourists last winter within Europe.  From November 2004 to April 2005, with a hotel occupancy rate of 54.5 %, according to information published from the European Statistics Office (  Eurostat  ), Spanish hotels registered an increase of 6.8 % in November and 5.5 % in December compared to the same time last year, however April 2005 saw a slight decrease of 0.7 %. Following Spain in popularity were Malta with 51.5 % and France with 50.9 %.
Want to Get Away in the New Year for Less?
RyanAir are offering Free flights for January and part of February, click their link below!

10 Days Paternity Leave for Civil Servants

New fathers who work as civil servants are to get 10 days paternity leave. Mothers will also be able to extend their maternity leave by four more weeks, the government announced recently.  The new plan will also offer more flexible working hours for men as well as women, which will mean up to the third of the working day can be devoted to family needs.  Also workers will not have to work later than 6pm but will still have to complete their contracted hours each week.  Parents with children under six will also be able to reduce the number of hours. The measures were backed by civil service unions.

Low-fat Dairy Linked to Lower Blood Pressure

A new study suggests that middle-aged adults who favour skimmed milk and other low-fat dairy foods may have lower blood pressure than others their age.  Researchers in Spain found that among nearly 5,900 adults they surveyed over two years, those with the highest intake of low-fat dairy products were about half as likely to develop high blood pressure as those who consumed the fewest.

Police Charge 7 Algerians with Helping Terrorism

Spanish police have detained at least seven Algerians on charges of helping to finance Islamist terrorism, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said Friday 9 December. Six men and one woman were captured overnight in flats at various locations including Malaga, Marbella and Torremolinos. Police searched more than a dozen homes, farms, garages, shops and call centres. They seized drugs, jewellery, money, fake documents, mobile phones and Arabic-language texts championing jihad (  holy war  ). Alonso said the detainees belonged to a 'perfectly structured' group which committed robberies, falsified documents and credit cards and trafficked stolen vehicles. They sent their earnings to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (  GSPC  ) - an Algerian organization regarded as an al-Qaeda satellite in Northern Africa and Europe - using couriers and a 'complex system of bank transfers', Alonso said. The suspects maintained contacts in other European countries and were believed to have lodged terrorists passing through Spain. Alonso said there was no evidence of immediate plans for attacks in Spain. Alonso said Spain's Islamist networks with links to terrorism had a level of activity similar to those of similar groups in other European Union countries, such as France or Germany.

Spanish Artist's Work to be Exhibited in China

China's Zhejiang Province will host a modernistic Spanish art exhibition displaying the work of famous Spanish artist Josep Maria Subirachs from 11 to 27 December in the Westlake Expo Museum of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang. The exhibition, with the theme of "Holy Subirachs", is jointly sponsored by the Shanghai International Culture Association, the Zhejiang International Culture Association and the French Euro-Asia Institute.

Málaga 1 - Osasuna 2

With another home loss and Real Madrid to face this week, crisis looms for Málaga. Málaga have 15 points and are 12th in the league table behind Barcelona with 28 points. Málaga are at home to Real Madrid this Sunday, 11 December with kick off at 7.00 pm.

World Cup 2006

Spain has drawn matches against Ukraine, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia in their group stage for the World Cup finals next year. Spain's coach Luis Aragones is cautiously optimistic about his side's chances of progressing from their group but says he is concerned about the teams they are likely to meet in the knockout stages. Spain were drawn in Group H and face a potential clash against Group G favourites France or Switzerland in the last 16, with Brazil blocking their way to the semis.