Hi David! Love your site and all your reviews/gossip etc! We are coming back to Cortijo Grande in a couple of weeks and you seem to know everything about the area/where to eat etc so I was hoping you could answer a couple of questions for me?
I heard a rumour that Los Limoneros had closed down? Is that true? Is Finca Listonero re-opened for the evenings yet? Is it still a restaurant and what is it like…have you been yet?
Finally….is there anywhere in Turre you would recommend to eat as I know a lot of places have closed? Thanks for all your help!
Well, shucks. Here’s the scoop, to the best of my knowledge: Read more…
As foxes go, this one was not a particularly fine specimen. Don’t think I need to worry about him biting through the chicken wire to get at the chickens! Taken in the Rio Aguas above Turre last night (click for big pic)
We later discovered that this was a cub and spotted him with his mother (no sign of any others around)
Turre mayor has announced that the Guardia Civil station in Turre is to reopen on a full time basis with a full staff.
This is 10 years after the Turre station was downgraded to a branch office, and the officers transferred to Garrucha, although a few officers would open up the office during the day for paperwork reasons.
Local towns such as Los Gallardos and Bedar will, it seems, be switched from Vera to the new Turre branch. I shall miss the furry little face of the Vera sergeant. At least parking is easier in Turre.
Mayor Ortega (¡Pacooooo!) has confirmed that a sergeant has been appointed for the station, and that work is being carried out to reopen disused offices. The rest of the staff will be appointed within the next few weeks, and it is hoped that the station will be open by mid August. Once it is running at its full complement, there will be a dozen officers assigned to Turre. This is on top of the six local police officers (Paco hired four of them).
For some reason, Paco is quoted as saying that “it is still not enough, you can never have enough officers”. Hmm. 12 Gc + 6 LP= 18 officers amongst 3453 inhabitants of Turre works out to one officer per 215 people. China, by comparision, seems to have about one officer per 1111 citizens (cheers, Google). Far be it from me to mutter “police state” under my breath, although Paco’s plan to blow 150K on CCTV and speed camaras up and down the main drag does seem to indicate he’s been to London recently.
No news on whether SEPRONA, the environmental police who currently work out of Garrucha (Vera gets the traffic police), will have a branch there.
A new information sign to the GC station was erected this week at the top of the high street, I was interested to note.
Dad sent me these photos of the remains of a gigantic wasp / hornet / monster from Dr Who which he had a “titanic struggle” with, after coming across it in his tool shed.
“It was a nasty brute” reminisced Dad, “but the 12 bore took him out easily enough”.
If anyone knows what this is, or how prevalent they are in Turre, we would be grateful to know.
On Friday night, a young 23 year lad called David Zamora, playing football in the local league at Turre old football stadium, collapsed and died during the match. He was pronounced dead at Huercal Overa hospital.
He had a small heart problem from birth, but lead a strict life and had a perfect bill of health. He was a regular player in the league.
I know his elder sister, and my heart goes out to his family.
Last week, Turre townhall had their monthly meeting, only to discover (to their surprise) that neither the PP nor the IU deputies turned up (both were away).
The ruling PSOE seem to have taken the opportunity to push through a number of initiatives that otherwise would have lead to controversy, including the rather stupid new one way system that workers are implementing this week.
Here’s a map of the new one way system in Turre. If it’s bad for you (it is for me!) then tough. And if you don’t like the spiffy new road signs (very modern) then, also, tough. Information on how much they cost was not forthcoming.
The following is a story based on bar talk, accusations from the PP and the IU, public documents, personal involvement and my own memories.
Many years ago, Turre realised that it had to do something about the main street, the Avenida. At that point, it was a national road and the townhall couldn’t touch it. So a Mayor (I think it was Arturo Grima, before he was banned -for the first time- from holding public office, but it may have been someone else) asked for the road to be transferred to the townhall.
A number of years passed. Documents were submitted, and the wheels of Government ground their slow pace.
And now we are in (or around) 2005. The road is transferred to the townhall and everyone is pleased.
At the end of 2006, we saw a delightful plan for the new avenue, with no fewer than three roundabouts and even a new palm tree in place of the old one. I’ve lost my copy of the plan, but it was lovely.
Not much happened since, obviously, although this was cited as one of the reasons for the coup d’étât which saw PP Mayor Arturo Grima frogmarched to the wilds of political opposition (he was kicked out five months after the last elections, after the previous PSOE mayor, Granero, agreed to step aside from his position as leader of the PSOE in order to take up a lucrative job as a Climate Change Advisor to the Junta in Almería. This opened the way to a coalition which put our current mayor in charge).
IU councillor Martin Morales handed in a number of official complaints about it to the townhall and generally did his job, ie, be a nuisance to the government on behalf of the little people. For example, he refused to sit down during several plenary sessions until the Mayor did something about it. Good lad. People complained. Life went on.
He also released a video about it, here:
Anyway, the whole murky subject has now bubbled back to the top of the pot, and the plans have reappeared in a basement at Turre townhall. Easy to locate, they ain’t.
Expropriations are, I am told, immiment if not already underway.
A minor problem – there is a funding gap of just some 1,5 million euros which the townhall has promised to cover out of its’ own pocket. From where will they get this money, me wonders? I would expect that they’ve increased the total budget, got the three odd million euros from the Junta and the Diputación, and will now cut back so they don’t have to put any money in. Either that, or the works will stop halfway.
Anyway, it has been bought to my attention that the townhall has been promising residents who will loose land to the new Avenida that they have the option to receive an “extended building permit” which will allow them to, in future, build an extra storey on any building that is left after the bulldozers go through, instead of being compensated in cash. Perfectly legal: the townhall has the option to offer compensation in cash or in kind (they could, for example, swop the expropriated land for municipal land elsewhere).
A problem – Arturo, ex-mayor and head of the PP, points out that under regional planning laws Turre is now limited to three storeys, so anyone who exchanges their land for a permit to build up to four storeys is being sold magic beans.
So the townhall, to save having to spend money it’s accounted for but doesn’t have has promised (mainly elderly) locals something that it can’t fulfill. The townhall could give permission to build a skyscraper – the Junta would stop it.
Yes, there are some four storey apartment blocks in Turre – approved under older building legislation. Unless the population in the centre of Turre rises, the Junta will not increase the building density in the area.
A couple of houses are expected to be knocked down, including the ancient ruin at the top of the Avenida (just past La Pará). A palm tree has been promised in leui of the old one.
The old palm tree was an important symbol of Turre. When it died, Turreros murmured darkly about the “curse of la palmera“. “With that tree, so goes the fortunes of Turre” was the common lament. Efforts to replant a new tree there have always failed.
Having had to close the place for… what… almost a year? (six month overrun as they forgot to put electric piping in and had to dig everything back up again) it’s only been open a week.
The concept is nice. Different colour cobbles to mark out pedestrian and car spaces. Dark grey for the cars, grey for pedestrian walkways, red for zebra crossings.
Trouble is, as usual, they didn’t think things through and skimped on the cost.
It’s already, one week after opening (and one week after a heckava rain storm) stained, mucky and sticky. Some young and enthusiastic fellow has christened the stones by seeing how long a skidmark he could produce on it. Chewing gum stains show up nicely.
And – get this – after putting the stones down, the Authorities realised they hadn’t put any road markings on the road, so they’ve gone and (badly) painted over the stones with road paint. Which will soon fade.
I shudder to think what this will look like in a years’ time.
Contrast this with the new entrance to Los Gallardos, which was done in the same fashion.
There, they’ve actually used different colour cobbles for all the road markings, so no paint on top of the nice new cobbles. Everything is nicely thought out and properly laid down, with several different colour of stone, clearly visible, showing road, car parking, zebra crossing and pedestrian walkways. A few large, carefully placed, plant pots (made out of iron, so I pity the fool who backs into them) ensure that drunk drivers don’t run over too many pedestrians.
All in all, a complete contrast between the two villages. It just goes to show what an important part a strong team in the Ayuntamiento does. Turre, which changes every few months, has sunk into obscurity and dirty poverity, versus Los Gallardos, which has had the same team since democracy kicked in (and before!), which goes from strength to strength.
Which brings me onto the new Avenue that’s still being planned, years after the original plans were made public.
Anyway, here’s a video released by Turre townhall showing how it was made.
or see a 
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