Posts Tagged cantoria
Bomb hoax at Almería’s biggest company
A naughty person called in a hoax bomb threat to Cosentino’s Cantoria factory yesterday.
Much excitement as sniffer dogs turned up.
Teleprensa describes a “rural patrol” of the Guardia Civil taking control, no doubt bravely holding back the crowds as panicked employees scattered in front of lorry loads of soldiers. I’m imaging one of those war like scenes, here.
Turned out to be a false alarm. Police are making threatening noises about “the maximum penalty under Spanish anti-terrorism national law”.
Makes a change from riffling through townhall paperwork, I suppose.
Read the story: Bomb hoax at Cosentino’s Cantoria factory.
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Jail for Cantoria couple who built and sold illegal houses
Well, six months, anyway. For building 15 homes without any license, having them declared illegal by the courts and still selling the bloody things on.
4 arrested in Cantoria for making their own fireworks
Four men, residents of Cantoria, have been arrested for making and selling their own fireworks. It seems that a local marble workshop burnt down just before new years; upon investigation, the Guardia found evidence that an explosive device had been used to start the fire.
What actually seems to have happened is that some of the homemade fireworks self ignited and started a fire that destroyed the workshop (no injuries). The Guardia eventually found a shed full of the things, 250kg of homemade gunpowder and other thingies. I suppose we’re just fortunate that the cops used a torch to peer inside the shed, and didn’t light a match.
Mayor of Cantoria blames the Brits for dog poo in the streets
The Mayor & Corporation of Cantoria has passed a bylaw permitting the fining of dog owners who leave their pets poo in the street. All well and good. However, in declarations to La Voz, Pedro Llamas (the mayor) said that while he welcomes the new expat members of the community, the Brits tend to be animal lovers who bring large number of pets with them who then foul the area, and are later abandoned “which causes the Diputacion great problems in catching the strays”.
While the first thing that jumps out is that it seems that only in Cantoria does the Diputacion actually carry out its stray catching duties, I’m not sure why he seems to think that only the Brits let their dogs foul the streets?
Cantoria residents march went off well
Some three hundred Brits marched through the streets of Cantoria yesterday in a peaceful protest against the proposed demolition of 23 homes there. The Fiscal of the Environment Dept of the Junta has lodged a request with the Courts of Huercal Overa to demolish the homes, located in the “El Fez” area of the village, and which the Junta claims were built on rustic land without permissions, while the current owners claim that they were built with local permits and that they were, on the whole, conned by corrupt local mayors and builders.
In general a sympethic ear from the Spanish press, El Ideal possibly touching a tad lightly on the subject, El Almeria being pro english and La Voz, as always, being as sympethetic as possible without pissing off their political masters. Who’d be a reporter there, eh? I see Lenox was quoted a few times, and the possibility of every Brit in Europe selling up and moving to Cyprus was mooted several times. Lenox – the wine in Cyprus is not as good as the local stuff. I can assure you. Cheap does not equal decent.
All main newspaper reminded us that these areas will be included under the new Plan General de Inspecciones de Vivienda de Andalucia. So don’t worry too much, try to spin out the court case for another 6 months then ask the judge to be included in the Plan General.
Read all about it! Lenox writes up the Cantoria demonstration over at Spanish Shilling. And the “official” press release from AUAN.
See news stories from Google News.
Junta announces plan to legalise illegal Almanzora houses
Juan Luis Caparros, delegate of Public Works (Obras Publicas) of the Junta de Andalucia, has announced after a long meeting with the mayors of Albox, Arboleas, Zurgena, Cantoria, Lubrin, Albanchez and Partaloa that these municipalities will be included within the new Plan General de Inspección de Andalucía, the new legal framework the Junta is working on to legalise illegal houses.
The regulations for the new Plan General, which is expected to be finished and ratified by the end of the year, allows the Junta to include or exclude individual existing houses in municipal planning laws retrospectively.
The general idea is to survey each “illegal” house in these municipalities (and others across Andalucia) individually. Depending upon the results of the survey, three outcomes are possible:
- The house, if located near others (ie in an illegal urbanizacion) can be legalised as a block, and public infrastructure allocated. So, if there is an illegal urbanizacion that isn’t doing any harm, the Junta will legalise the lot and build roads, electric, sewer and the like. In certain cases they will also earmark that zone for future construction and expansion.
- The house, if alone but not doing any harm, may be allowed to stay but placed in a zona de protección especial which basically prevents any modifications to the house or any other houses to be built nearby – anyone who builds a house nearby will be prosecuted under penal law. This fits in with the Juntas attempts to prevent the construction of illegal “population zones”. No news on whether or not you could sell that house in the future.
- The house, if dangerous, unviable or in public land (ie natural park, riverbed, etc) will be demolished without compensation.
The mayors have all expressed “satisfaction” with this solution, and it has been called the “light at the end of the tunnel” by the vicemayor of Albox. If the Plan General is ratified by the Andalucian Parliment on time (mid December) then the first surveys will start early 2009. It is expected that some 6000 houses will be surveyed in the Almanzora valley alone.
No word on what will happen to illegal houses in municipalities that lie outside of the Plan General, such as Vera – the Plan General only applies to municipalities that are specified and contain great numbers of illegal houses. I assume that what court cases are carrying on will continue.
(taken from La Voz de Almería, 12th Sept 2008)
Cantoria demonstrations
On the 18th of Sep there will be a peaceful march through the village of Cantoria against the demolition of expat homes in the area. It’s hoping that all expats in the area will be present.
There’s an excellent call to arms from Lenox over at his website Spanish Shilling. Read it and get ready for a small walk and make new friends.
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