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Issue 989 19th - 25th October
COSTA BLANCA SOUTH
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Alicante needs ‘baby boom’ ALICANTE is worrying about its future as it has been revealed that only two out of 10 of its inhabitants are under 19 years old. The province has placed third across Spain with the least numbers of young people. The fall in the birth rate has been put down to a combination of unemployment issues, low salaries, and many youngsters leaving the area to look for opportunities elsewhere in the country or abroad. However, there are more centenarians over the past decade with the numbers tripling over that period. At the same time, 5,000 new births have ‘disappeared’, which can only have consequences for future health provision and pension payments. According to reports, the Alicante Province would need a baby boom similar to the one from the 1970’s to reverse the current trend in the ageing population. Detailed figures show that in a population of 1.8 million, only 363,000 are under 19 years old, and are only behind Sevilla, Malaga and the neighbouring Murcia Province.
Hundreds in mine protest by Glenn Scott
M
ORE than 800 people took to the streets of San Miguel de Salinas to demonstrate against the proposed gypsum mine for the area. It had been organised by the Neighborhood Coordinator of San Miguel de Salinas, with the support of the San Miguel Arcángel Neighbourhood Association, and the hundreds of locals took the chance to demand that the Valencian Community Government refuse a request for a company to carry out surveys on a 1,400 hectares plot of land. What took many of those on the march by surprise (and delight) was the appearance of all the local councillors - both governing and opposition who joined in to express their own objections to the plans. The company, Rio de Aguas SL,
TOGETHER: Councillors joined in with the local residents. has applied for permission to carry out a survey with a budget of €490,000. Manolo Gómez, the residents’ spokesman, said: “In addition to the tourism impact, the value of our prop-
erties would plummet and there would also be devastating effects on our natural heritage. A gypsum mine of this size would be catastrophic for the municipality.”
Trapped passengers freed FOUR people were left injured after a collision on the CV-941 between Mil Palmeras and San Miguel de Salinas. For reasons that are still being investigated, the car and a van were involved in a headon collision. Two of the three occupants of the car were trapped, and needed firefighters from Torrevieja to cut them free. They were then taken to Torrevieja Hospital for further treatment. The driver of the van and the other occupant of the car also suffered minor injuries and were taken to other nearby health centres.