Bigastro is the new Liverpool

To make money during an economic crisis, you have to think out of the box and that is just what a group of friends have done here in Bigastro.

They started to rent a warehouse on the industrial estate outside the town in 2011 and turned it into music practice rooms for local bands. They called the enterprise Delta and divided it up into several small rooms, each with a secure lock on the door, which can be rented out for 120 euros per month.

In all, fifteen groups practice there including Las Suicidas who used to rehearse elsewhere until the prices rose. Other groups include; 5 Sentidos and the guitarist Tony Sánchez who plays in three groups of which both the Hamers and Logan practice at Delta.

The total security is clearly important to the groups that use Delta. The fact they can leave their instruments and amplifiers in the building knowing that they will still be there next time is a big selling point. 

Remember the upsurge of music in Liverpool during the 60s? From seemingly nowhere, there were chart topping groups performing and making a name for themselves. This could be the future for Bigastro! In ten years time you will be saying, “I first read about this on Keith’s blog”.

A growing social problem

Imagine what it is like to live in Orihuela next to a piece of open land where every weekend throughout the summer you are kept awake until the early hours of the morning by the sound of motorbikes and people shouting. In the daytime you set out to be greeted by the sight of hundreds of bottles littered on the land and the overpowering stench of urine.

The Spanish call it botellón or large bottle - a common practice among young people on Friday and Saturday nights. The first stop is the supermarket to pick up large bottles of mixers, cheap bottles of sprits and plastic glasses. Then they congregate at pre determined locations with their carrier bags of booze and stay until the early hours of the morning.

Along with the graffiti artists, these young people are causing a lot of distress in the city and the situation is rapidly getting out of control.  Unless steps are taken to eradicate these problems, there is a danger that parts of the city will resemble ghettos where nobody wants to live.

The same problems exist, to a lesser extent in towns like Bigastro. Graffiti in the town is on the increase.

A few weeks ago, Pam and I saw two young men making their statement on a wall at the bottom of Avenida Europa. In broad daylight, the “artists” were touching up a previous piece of graffiti. They were dressed like urban guerrillas. armed with cans of paint, brushes and the inevitable spray paint to finish the job off. They obviously thought they were doing a public service by turning this drab concrete block wall into “art”. To the rest of the population, what they had created was an illegible scrawl. The only saving grace was that the wall did not seem to be on a house but it must belong to someone.

Further up the road, there is an old finca which has stood in ruins since we arrived here. A few years ago, a concrete wall was built around it. We thought that meant it would be reformed and lived in. That has not happened and the house still stands in ruins. The carefully built wall, which must have cost quite a bit, is now covered in graffiti making the site look uglier than it was before constructed.

Déjà vu

On Friday, when it became clear that Bigastro would lose 50% of its government funding if the council did not pass its payment plan to suppliers, the mayor held a meeting with employees to warn them that, in those circumstances, wages would not be paid and services would be cut. 

Those employees would have then put pressure on the previous mayor and leader of the socialist group, Raúl Valerio Medina to change his mind and vote with the opposition party. At the time he probably recalled the dark days when his party were in power. Faced with overwhelming budget problems, they delayed payment of salaries to employees for months on end. Clearly, Raúl  did not want to return to that situation and neither did those who work for the council.

Raúl was between a “rock and a hard place”. If he had continued to oppose the plan it would have spelt disaster for the town that is already in financial ruin so he conceded to the opposition. In return for the favour to the PP, the ex mayor got none of the concessions that he hoped for.

I imagine that Aurelio Murcia and his Liberal colleague will be bitterly disappointed with Raúl’s change of heart. They, along with three socialist councillors, voted against the motion at both meetings.

For the moment, the pressure is off the ruling party. All is not over yet but knowing that Raúl changed his mind once may make them confident that it can happen again and again. The decision he made on Friday will surely come back to haunt him at future meetings and at the next elections.

Are they tourists or visitors?

In the heyday, towns in the Vega Baja tried to develop a model of tourism, they even visited fairs to promote the idea.

In Bigastro for example, the mayor at the time sold land at La Pedrera to build an aparthotel with conference facilities and golf practice ranges. Other towns had golf courses so why not Bigastro. The fact that there was nothing else in Bigastro to attract tourists and that the route to the hotel was via a country lane was not even considered. Thankfully, the idea was squashed when the area was deemed to be parkland without proper permission for building.

Although Bigastro might be a good place to live, it hardly rates as a tourist destination. The same applies to most of the other towns of the Vega Baja. People might visit them but they are not tourists by any definition.

To support the influx of tourists that they thought would flock here, 14 Tourist Information offices were built in the area. In obvious destinations like Torrevieja, Guardamar del Segura and Orihuela these could be justified but how could you justify such offices in San Miguel de Salinas, Dolores, San Fulgencio, Almoradí or Callosa de Segura?

Since these small towns do not have tourists as such, it must be hard for anyone to argue that these offices should be kept open. Even in these difficult economic times, it seems that nobody is sure just how much they cost but estimates put the one in San Fulgencio at 55,000 euros per year.

So why do they not just close them down and save money?

The opposition parties in these towns would probably agree with that idea but the ruling parties have vested interests. These are “jobs for the boys” and so the offices remain open. I imagine that the people in them must spend all day straightening out the leaflets in the hope that maybe one or two visitors might pop in for a chat. 

11th hour reprieve

The Bigastro government team, led by Charo Bañuls  (PP), managed to pull off its Provider Payment Plan to finance 809,000 euros of arrears due to support by the PSOE spokesman, Raul Valerio Medina. The agreement was adopted at a plenary session held 'in extremis' at 17.45, just 15 minutes before the expiry of the term to justify its approval to the Ministry of Finance.

At the regular meeting held in the morning, the socialists, along with the liberals, voted against the plan. If they had maintained that position, then the council would have effectively been crippled because the Ministry of Finance would have reduced payments to the council from 100,000 to 50,000 euros per month.  The mayor met with council employees at noon to inform them of the situation and he fact that basic services would have been cut and salaries left unpaid.

The change of heart by the socialist leader came about because of pressure placed upon him. At the second meeting three of the socialist councillors along with the two liberal councillors still voted against the proposal. With just 11 out of the 13 councillors in attendance the vote was therefore five for and five against giving the socialist leader the casting vote.

Dance at the Auditorium

On Sunday, 6th October at 6pm, the Auditorium Francisco Grau will present a show by the Murcia Dance Company.

The show will be in two parts:

Quiroga

Six Spanish songs that form part of the sentimental memory of millions of Spaniards.

Poet

A presentation of flamenco which respects the original character of the dance. A modern version that remains true to the roots and purity of flamenco.

This show is sponsored by the Provincial Council of Alicante and the Department of Culture of the City of Bigastro.

Followers of this blog may recall my album of photos from the last presentation by the Murcia Dance Group. My Flickr pictures start with this one.

A modern disease

Vandalism in the form of graffiti is a social problem that many countries seem to face these days. The authors have very little regard for the annoyance that their work causes. I suppose, they would argue that their work is “art” and in any case is non destructive to the walls and buildings they use as canvasses. Mostly though, the graffiti consists of illegible scrawlings that have no artistic merit whatsoever. Removing them is both costly and time consuming.  

In Torrevieja, they have installed an ultra sophisticated system of cameras in an attempt to curb all forms of vandalism, including graffiti, and it seems to be effective.

Orihuela is now considering installing cameras in public places to try and halt the problem there. The councillor, Antonia Moreno says that vandalism and drinking in the streets is a scandal and that the treat of fines is not working. The city needs to find a better solution to the problem and that may well be cameras.

Orihuela will need permission from Alicante to go ahead and the plans will be subject to scrutiny because of the intrusive nature of cameras in the street. If the end result is a cleaner city, then it will be worth it

The disappearing outdoor phone

When we were young, the only way to make a phone call was to go to the nearest telephone box. At that time, there was very little vandalism in the rural towns where we lived and so you could almost guarantee that the phone would work. In fact, the phone directory would usually be there as well but might have the odd page torn out. In popular places, you might even have to queue up and wait to make a call whist some love stuck Romeo sweet talked his girlfriend. In Britain, the red phone box was a familiar and welcome sight.

When we were in our late teens, Pamela’s father was a high ranking fireman and my father a police sergeant so we did have phones in the house (not the norm in those days) but we could only use them for emergency private calls because they had been supplied to maintain contact with work. The fire service would not have been pleased, nor the police service, if they could not get through because Pam and I were chatting to our friends on the phone.

These days though, things are very different; a lot more houses have fixed phones and most people have a mobile phone (or two). Very few now have to rely on the phone box in the street to make a call.

In 2005, a royal decree in Spain regulated the number of phone booths that a town should have. In the case of Torrevieja, with a population of 103,000, that is set at 35. In fact there were 96 which has now been reduced to 87 because Telefónica  has removed nine of the booths in outlying areas due to their lack of use. 

Young and foolish

The two young women -Michaella McCollum Connolly and Melissa Reid, accused of drug smuggling have now appeared in court and admitted to being guilty of the crime.

If they had continued to claim to be innocent, they would have spent more time in jail awaiting trial and could have been sentenced to fifteen years. Because they have now pleaded guilty, their sentence will be reduced to six years and eight months. I can only assume that is the difference between the minimum and maximum sentences imposed for the crime. 

The girls hope to be able to carry out the sentences back in Britain but that is by no means certain. They will need to show they behaved well in jail, pass 'legal, social, medical and psychological tests' and fund their own tickets home. According to legal sources, a transfer could take many years, by which time they could be free. It is a very long process and Britain does not often agree to it.

Apart from their families, the girls can expect little support from Britain. For example, attempts to drum up support for Irish-born McCollum after her arrest failed to garner support with the public back in Northern Ireland. A legal fighting fund to raise cash for her defence had to be shut down after it received only about £600 from public donations.

Their only hope is to be able to help the authorities in Peru to track down those that organised the drug trafficking. From their position in prison, I imagine that will be an almost impossible task.

The two girls should be grateful that they were not caught with that amount of cocaine in Bali where things would have been a lot worse for them. In my opinion, those that are involved with drugs in any way deserve what they get. 

Cheap skates

Those of you who have visited Torrevieja recently and walked along the Vista Alegre will have noticed the shabby condition of the wood that provides shade along the 150 metre walkway.

The pergola was constructed in 2008 at a cost to the Generalitat Valenciana of 3.1m  euros and consists of steel arches covered with planks of wood. Originally the wood chosen for the job was Argentine kebracho but that proved to be too heavy for the steel arches to bear and so iroko was specified.

African iroko is a hardwood that is known for its resistance to bad weather so it is puzzling that the wood on this particular pergola has deteriorated so much in just five years.

The answer is simple.  The actual wood used was fir because that is three times cheaper than iroko. Even laminated spruce would have been a better choice but no, they used fir. Further more, the wood was not properly treated when it was installed.

If the company that completed the work had used iroko then it could have been restored by sanding the wood down followed by a treatment with oil. Now it looks like all the wood will have to be removed to restore it.

Squatters move in

In nearby Callosa del Segura, squatters have moved in to apartments left empty after the banks have evicted owners. In the heyday many moved to new and larger flats, financed by mortgages from the banks that were all too willing to lend money. When the owners fell behind with payments, the banks foreclosed on them and took the properties over. Some of these homes have been auctioned off at knockdown prices but many remain empty.

Taking advantage of this situation, some have broken into the unoccupied flats and live in them with illegal connections to water and electricity. A few have made arrangements with the banks to pay a nominal rent. The squatters are not just from Callosa though, there are some who have come to the town from other parts of the Vega Baja. As you might imagine, the legal residents are none too happy about their gypsy neighbours.

Mayor looks for support

As expected, the mayor of Bigastro is struggling without the support of the Liberals. Without a majority, she can’t get approval for the budget and so has postponed preparation of the accounts until December.

It is vital though that she makes plans to cover the interest payments to suppliers because these must be closed before the end of the month and submitted to the Ministry of Economy.

The PSOE will only offer support to the PP if they know exactly what the plans are. In the past it was the PP who complained about the lack of information prior to council meetings – now the boot is on the other foot. I imagine the Socialists will only offer support on their own terms.

Note to Les

Les Rowlands, who lives at the other side of our estate, is a staunch Manchester City fan. He must therefore be like the cat that got the cream after his team’s 4-1 thrashing over Manchester United in the first derby game of this season.

United have had a dismal start to the season, drawing to Chelsea, losing to Liverpool and now to City. By all accounts, yesterday’s game was just awful if you were a red supporter. The only player willing to do anything was apparently Rooney which is amazing when you consider he was all set to leave the club.

This is not the first time in recent history that City have trounced United. Two years ago they beat them 6-1 at Old Trafford. Apparently though, yesterday’s game was more embarrassing because there were no freak goals this time. United were simply outplayed in every sense.

The only consolation was that Rooney’s goal was his 11th in Manchester derbies making him top scorer in these events.

I think you can take it that harsh words were spoken in the United dressing room.

More of the same

We all now know that Angela Merkel had great cause to celebrate her victory in the German elections. With 41.5% of the votes, she will continue to be the Chancellor. In fact she came close to getting an absolute majority. Whilst other leaders in Europe suffered following the economic crisis, Merkel seems to be gaining in strength. 

It is not the tradition in Germany for parties to try and rule in minority so it is thought that Mrs Merkel will probably look for a coalition partner. That won’t be the FDP though who were punished by the electorate for working in partnership during the last government. They failed to get the 5% necessary to remain in parliament this time round.  That leaves only the SPD who worked as second partners before in 2005 and then suffered in 2009 for that decision.

Thankfully, the AfD, who advocated Germany’s exit from the euro, also failed to gain the necessary 5%.

Book club

Just to remind you book worms, the book club operates on the last Sunday of every month between 3 and 4pm up at La Pedrera. Plenty of titles for you to choose from – sorry but I understand that Pauline’s copy of 50 Shades of Grey is out on permanent loan and I can’t say who to.

PS I will give you a clue – think about the men you haven’t seen about much recently who, when you do see them, look preoccupied!

Are we heavy drinkers?

I read this morning that Alicante leads the way in recycling glass with an average of 17.3kgs per person against an average for Spain of 14.5kgs.

What does this say about us? True, there are 8,513 collection containers in Alicante – a ratio of one to every 228 inhabitants which might make it easier for us to recycle our glass but that is still a lot of bottles per person. Perhaps the answer is that we drink more wine and sprits than the rest of the country!

Here to stay

The king's health, and speculation he would abdicate, were top Twitter topics in Spain after it was announced the monarch was to have his eighth surgery since 2010.

“The King has not thought of abdicating at any time,” palace spokesman Rafael Spottorno told journalists at a news conference called to give details of the surgery on his left hip, which is expected to take place in Madrid in the next few days.

Miguel Cabanela, a Spanish-born resident surgeon at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, has flown to Madrid to lead the operation.

The 75-year-old king, who uses a walking stick, has appeared visibly more frail in recent months and stumbled at a military ceremony last week. Both of his hips have been replaced and in March he had an operation on a spinal disc hernia.

Alzheimer Bigastro

Good morning, are you ready for a full weekend?

At the CASINO BAR, on Saturday afternoon you can taste Moorish tea along with desserts made by the best bakers in Bigastro.

And on Sunday morning you can sample solidarity PAELLA! RATIONS FOR ONLY €1.

Concert time

This Sunday, September 22, at 19:00 pm, the Youth Concert Band along with the band from Rafal, will be playing at the Municipal Auditorium Francisco Grau.

Third age Gala

For those of you who missed it, on Sunday, October 13 at 17:30 in the Auditorium Francisco Grau, there will be a reprise of Bigastro: The Musical. Tickets 2 €.

The first performance was held during the fiesta but started very late. The production was very entertaining and even if you could not understand all of the dialogue you’d get the gist of it. There was lots of singing and dancing with a background story.