Mast removal
Orange telecoms last month agreed to take
down a mobile telephone mast between
Torrox Costa and El Morche. Local
residents had complained for ten years
about the presence of the transmitter and
the company was ordered to dismantle it a
year ago. It was not until mayor Óscar
Medina gave them a deadline of November
19 that action was taken.
Mayor dies
The body of the mayor of El Borge was
found at his family farm in early
November. Salvador Fernández Marín,
aged 48, is believed to have taken his own
life, although he is reported to have been
working normally at the town hall until the
day of his death. He leaves a widow and a
son.
Sanitation fine
Nerja has been named amongst 17 Spanish
municipalities which violate EU sanitation
requirements. As a result, Madrid will be
fined €22 million a year, according to
Secretary of State for the Environment,
Hugo Morán. Construction of Nerja’s new
sewage treatment plant is well advanced
and is expected to enter a trial phase in the
New Year.
Road resurfacing
Work began last month on resurfacing the
road between Torrox and Frigiliana. The
provincial government has paid Torrox
Town Hall €340,000 to improve six
kilometres of the link which serves many
outlying homes and farms. The remainder
of the ten-kilometre road was resurfaced by
Frigiliana Town Hall some years ago, and
maintenance of its entire length is now the
responsibility of the province.
Fruit thefts
National Police have arrested a 32-year-old
man accused of stealing more than 9,000
kilos of fruit from 13 farms around
Almayate. Since 2014, he is thought to have
committed 32 thefts, mainly of avocados,
with a value of almost €27,000. His victims
say he has left damaged fruit trees and
infrastructure in his wake.
Suicide prevented
Security guards wrestled a 16-year-old girl
to the ground last month to stop her
committing suicide. Moments earlier, her
British friend, 14-year-old Richard
Fitzsimons, died after throwing himself
from the roof of El Corte Inglés in Puerto
Banús. Both were pupils at Aloha College in
Marbella and had earlier messaged friends
to say they were on their way to the
department store to end their lives.
Huge new car park
for Vélez-Málaga
A new parking facility
of 1,000 vehicles is
planned for Vélez-
Málaga. The town hall
is reported to be
intending to construct
a three-storey car park
beneath the paseo de
Andalucía.
made it clear, however,
that any such project
would be designed so
as not to impact on the
town’s four iconic ficus
trees which stand
there. They are part of
a varied woodland of
6,815 square metres
which was laid out in
1900 and which enjoys
easy access to the
historic centre of the
municipality. It is also
close to the bus station
and the terminus of
the presently-
suspended tranvía line.
The expansion of
pedestrianised streets
in the centre of Vélez
has brought the
pic: Dave Jamieson
problems of car
Vélez famous ficus trees at the
parking to the
entrance to paseo de Andalucía
forefront once again.
The town hall has been
holding consultation with various
parties, leading to the conclusion that
The mayor added that changes in the
the best site for a new underground car
centre of Vélez are making the streets
park would be beneath one of the
more pedestrian-friendly, in an effort
town’s best-known green spaces.
to revitalise the area and promote it as
a focus for wealth creation,
Mayor Antonio Moreno Ferrer has
employment and trade.
Tranvía preparations begin
The mayor of Vélez-Málaga has
ordered a start to preparations for
reopening the town’s public tramway
to Torre del Mar. However, because no
firm agreement is in place with the
regional government, the municipality
has sought finance from elsewhere.
The tranvía system was closed six years
ago by the town’s previous Partido
Popular administration in the light of
spiralling debts. But when the socialist
group at Vélez Town Hall took control
after the last local elections, mayor
Antonio Moreno Ferrer made it clear
that getting the trams running again
was one of his priorities.
According to reports last month, the
mayor has ordered preparations to
start ahead of awarding contracts for
the work necessary before the line can
reopen; this will include making the
system fully operational again,
including tracks, electrification,
signalling and other services and
facilities. It is reported that it will take
nine months before tenders can be
invited. The estimated total cost of
reopening the tramway has now been
put at more than €1.9 million, half a
million more than originally planned,
18
with over €1.4 million earmarked for
repairing and preparing the
infrastructure. But after three years of
negotiations with the regional
government, no deal has been signed
to guarantee the subsidy of 40 per cent
running costs which the municipality
was promised. So Vélez Town Hall has
turned to the EU’s Sustainable
Development Strategy programme
which offers a number of lines of
action including aid on mobility issues.
It is reported that the municipality will
receive a grant for drafting the plan,
staff costs and commissioning.
The 5.8 kilometre tramway between
Vélez-Málaga and Torre del Mar
represented a total investment of €33
million by the Junta de Andalucía,
when it opened in October 2006,
although the second 1.2 kilometre
phase of the line never went into
service. The first phase covered 4.8
kilometres with nine stops. It closed in
June 2012, but, alongside present plans
to reopen the existing line, are outline
plans to extend the tranvía west along
the cost to Rincón de la Victoria where
it would connect to the future Line 3 of
the Málaga Metro.