RTN North Edition 601

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north EDITION

Your English Newspaper

22 - 28 April 2011

Issue 601

Peace by piece by Jack Troughton

We’re all coming on a summer holiday! See page 17

THE COSTA Blanca is so far leading the pack in the race for the highest number of holiday bookings for the season with an incredible 1,000,000 people booked to celebrate their annual holiday in the sun in the region’s resorts; 16% higher than last year’s recorded figures and representing a bonanza for the hospitality industry needing a well-deserved boost in revenue. The popularity of the Costa Blanca resorts is being attributed to holiday makers looking for safer destinations that also represent attractive savings due to their close proximity to the UK and Germany. The start of the season is marked with Easter Holy Week and with temperatures on the rise the Costa Blanca is expecting a bumper crop of visitors to kick off a profitable year for the region’s biggest earning industry.

HOMEOWNERS FIGHTING to legalise their properties were told on Wednesday the campaign was like fitting a jigsaw together – and victory would come piece by piece. At a public meeting organised by the AULN – the Costa Blanca protest group based in the tiny village of Lliber – more than 100 residents applauded the promise a new draft general plan aimed to make homes legal. Mayor Juan Bautista said special plans were being drawn up to allow all illegal properties – even those partially constructed – to be “normalised” and finally be allowed basic utilities like electricity and water. But Adrian Hobbs, the AULN president, underlined that the problem was bigger than Lliber, where 300 houses were constructed in

the “urban crimes” of an alleged 90 million corruption scandal centred in the Marina Alta village. “Every regional government in Spain has a problem like we have got, up to one million homes could now be illegal – as more stories come out and more people realise things are not correct – effectively, urban law is in disarray.” DENIAL Yet, he said, the Spanish government remained in denial and in Andalucia politicians even went as far as blaming “foreigners” for the property problems in the region, while a ‘road show’ visiting the UK promoted Spain as being the place to invest in property because of legal certainty and the transparency of the system. Continued on page 3


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