Voted Best
ISSUE NO. 1722
5 - 11 July 2018
Newspaper in Spain 2017 & 2018
A XARQUÍA - C OSTA T ROPICAL
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
CREDIT: Almuñecar council
Plunge rescue
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Rate hike passed COUNCILS across Axarquia have agreed to raise water rates in order to save a publicly-owned waste treatment company from bankruptcy. Residents in Velez-Malaga, Rincon de la Victoria, Torrox, Algarrobo and Benamocarra are set to face the higher rates to cover the debts of Axaragua. The firm reportedly owes around €10 million due to years of losses. The measures passed by
councillors are due to raise an estimated €600,000 per year for the company. Almost 100 people attended the local authority session at Rincon de la Victoria. Members of the leftleaning Partido Socialista (PSOE) and the leftist Izquierda Unida (IU) were targeted in protests due to them supporting the plans. Councillors claimed the increase would be ‘negligible’ at around seven cents a month for most households.
Six held RESCUED: The German man fell into a riverbed in Almuñecar.
By Joe Gerrard THIS is the moment firefighters and Local Police officers made their way into a dried riverbed in Almuñecar to pull out a German tourist who fell into it. The 25-year-old plunged two metres into the Rambla del Espinar bed in the La
Herradura area of the town at around midnight last Friday. The reasons for the fall are currently being investigated, the town’s council said in a statement Emergency services personnel including an ambulance, police and six firefighters were despatched to the man’s location after be-
ing alerted to the fall. Onlookers and locals watched as a ladder was lowered into the riverbed and personnel climbed down with a stretcher to get the man. The 25-year-old was placed on the stretcher while paramedics provided first aid treatment. He was later taken
Police probe council A VELEZ-MALAGA Council building and the town’s Local Police headquarters have been raided by National Police officers on Tuesday in connection with a national investigation into alleged illegal hirings. Sources close to the operation confirmed officers from the police Economic and Fiscal Crime unit had visited the buildings. They were there on the orders of Spain’s Anticorruption Prosecutors and were aiming to find documents about a group of companies being investigated as part of the claims. Antonio Moreno Ferrer, the mayor of VelezMalaga, said the authority had no commercial relationship with the group of companies being investi-
gated. He added as he was surrounded by reporters that officials wanted to return the town to a state of normalcy. “Until we know what the judge rules we must support and defend the presumption of innocence of those investigated,” the mayor said. He added the authority was conducting its own investigation into the allegations which date from 2003 onwards. The raids come as more than 40 towns and cities throughout Spain faced similar visits from police as part of the nationwide Operation Enredadera. More than 600 National Police officers have reportedly been involved. The operation has also seen the arrest of Local Police chiefs and the Ciudadanos mayor of Arroyomolines in the Madrid region.
to the Regional Hospital in Motril. Almuñecar Council said several locals were drawn to the scene due to the presence of emergency services. The Local Police officers and firefighters were later joined at the scene by a Guardia Civil patrol, the authority added.
GUARDIA CIVIL officers have arrested six people in Rincon de la Victoria in connection with the alleged theft of olives from farms in Axarquia. Police said they began their investigation in February after receiving several complaints from farm workers over the disappearance of their crops. Inspections were made at an olive oil mill as part of the probe. The six suspects have been charged with theft, burglary, handling stolen goods, fraud, forging official documents and public health crimes. Officers based in Velez-Malaga claimed the group also attempted to commit tax fraud.