Euro Weekly News - Costa Blanca South 7 - 13 July 2016 Issue 1618

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ISSUE NO. 1618

7 - 13 July 2016

COSTA BLANCA SOUTH

YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION

Summertime shambles

By Matthew Elliott HUNDREDS of people protested in Torrevieja this week as the spectacle of a beach city without a lifeguard service in summer season saw anger spill out onto the streets. With thousands of tourists heading for the city beaches, tensions mounted over the council’s decision to hoist the red flag across all bathing areas in the municipality, while affairs took a darker turn with the death of a 75-year-

old man who appeared to have drowned at the unattended La Mata beach. A series of contractual problems and chronic staff shortages meant that Torrevieja entered summer without a functioning lifeguard force despite Mayor Jose Manuel Dolon pledging to end the delay and bring in a viable rescue service weeks ago. A three-year contract was expected to be signed this week which would see the new contractor provide life-

guards across the city by Friday July 8 at the latest, although hopefully before. The new service would run from 11am until 7pm from Monday to Saturday at an annual cost of roughly €400,000 but, regardless of whether Dolon’s pledges are substantiated, a great deal of damage has already been done. An estimated 200 bathers joined a spontaneous protest on Monday July 4, as authorities investigate whether the La Mata death could have

been prevented, and rival council factions use the crisis to score political points. The opposition PP has effectively blamed Dolon for the mess, while the mayor has argued that decades of cuts implemented by the PP undermined the council’s capacity to deal with unexpected problems. Dolon has publicly apologised for placing red flags across Torrevieja’s beaches but justified the dramatic decision as a means to avoid ‘greater evils.’

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