You’re being watched

ALTEA Town Council has renewed and expanded the municipal CCTV system.

Work has focused on changing old cameras, antennas and connections that had become obsolete for a new infrastructure that is more modern, with greater quality and capacity, as well as installing new cameras at strategic points.

“The priority has been to surround Altea with cameras to have footage of every vehicle that enters and leaves the town, as well as controlling the entrances to the mountain urbanisations,” declared local Security councillor Miguel de la Hoz.

The new CCTV system is equipped with number plate readers and a search function to identify when and where a certain vehicle was spotted.

Sorry?

“We have also focused on black spots for illegal rubbish dumps to clamp down and fine those responsible for this uncivil behaviour that spoils the image of our town,” he added. A new control room has also been set up in the Local Police station with all the necessary screens and computer equipment to control the cameras and manage the footage.

Smaller and sweeter

It has been brought forward by two weeks due to the unseasonal high temperatures and sunny weather for the time of year, which will lead to the fruit being smaller and easily bruised. On the plus side, farmers predict that these conditions will also mean that the loquats produced in Callosa d’En Sarrià and surrounding areas will be sweeter than usual, as the smaller size will make the nísperos more concentrated and “with an excellent balance of sugars and acids,” according to spokespeople for the district farmers’ union. The same sources reveal that they have been forced to shell out an extra 30 per cent this year due to the rising prices of fertilisers, plastic and packaging, transport and water. They also report a dearth of workers to pick and process the fruit due to the shortness of the campaign, the fact that the collection process is entirely manual and that the tourism sector absorbs most of the jobs in the area.