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OLIVE PRESS COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA
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expat
voice in Spain
Vol. 2 Issue 28 www.theolivepress.es November 26th - December 9th 2020
Landing Brexit A TRADE deal between the EU and Britain is on the verge of being finalised, after the EU looked set to cave in on fishing rights. An MEP broke ranks to say that it looked likely the French would have to compromise with Boris Johnson’s demands over UK waters. Christophe Hansen said the EU would have to meet the UK’s demands to clinch an agreement. "There will be compromises to be made on fisheries. The status quo, that is somewhere we're not going to land,” he told an event. French fishermen are understood to have backed the compromise despite losing out on access to certain fishing grounds. France had previously been refusing to back down on any fishing deal, demanding near-parity to the UK’s coastal waters.
Your
FORGET THE DRAUGHT: Conor and pals at makeshift local
UNABLE to have his regular Friday night down the boozer during lockdown, expat Conor Wilde hit on a novel idea - to build his own pub! The Irish expat, 46, got his mates over and converted his garden shed into what he claims is Spain’s smallest watering hole. Measuring 2.4m by 2.5m, it counts on a cornucopia of Emerald Isle collectibles… and it even has Guinness on draught. “After being cooped up like a man
Lockdown lock-in EXCLUSIVE in solitary in March I came up with a plan,” the Valencia-based real estate consultant told the Olive Press. “I had an old paellero shed in the garden. I got the lads over – Tuejar, El Gallego & Champ – and we
set about turning it into Spain’s smallest pub. And if I say so myself, we’ve done a grand job.” Called El Irlandes, after his favourite Martin Scorsese film, it happily fits his closest pals in for the usual Friday night Blarney. Wilde, from Skerries, near Dublin, has run the Found Valencia agency for two decades.
ELECTRIFYING! Energy giant sent packing after campaigners and Olive Press win long battle against ‘destructive’ pylon plan
Fight the power!
Deal
It comes as the governor of the Bank of England warned that a no-deal Brexit would be more economically damaging than COVID to the UK. Andrew Bailey said failure to get a deal signed would create a massive cross-border trade blockage and damage goodwill between Brussels and the UK. Meanwhile, Ireland leader Micheal Martin said on Monday he was hopeful that a Brexit deal would be completed this week. Taoiseach Martin said ‘by the end of this week we could see the outlines of a deal’. He said it would come down to ‘political will, both in the United Kingdom and I’m clear the political will is there from the European Union’. EU ambassadors were told over the weekend that a trade deal with Britain is on the verge of being finalised. They were told the majority of the 11 main negotiation issues have ‘joint legal texts with fewer and fewer outstanding points’. The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, struck a positive note, saying: “After difficult weeks we have seen better progress, on important files. This is good.” See No hard shoulder, page 6
SAVED: the stunning countryside and how it would have looked with the pylons
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GREEN campaigners are rejoicing after plans to erect over 100 giant pylons were effectively sparked out this week in Andalucia. In a shock win, they thanked the Olive Press for its year-long campaign to stop the ‘motorway of power lines’ through two iconic Granada valleys. Our Fight the Power campaign, launched in March 2019, strongly opposed the long lines of pylons and a giant electricity substation in the Alpujarras and Lecrin Valley. We were joined by celebrated writer Chris Stewart and pop star Dr Robert of the Blow Monkeys to oppose the ‘crazy abomination’. The battle had erupted when locals unearthed energy giant Red Electrica’s state-funded plan to erect the 80m high structures, mostly on private land. In the case of British expat Steve Holdup, 63, the REE scheme would have seen a pylon going up in his back garden. Ironically, the tower and service road would have been installed right in the middle of the retired teacher’s own solar panel project. Grassroots movement Di No a Los Torres (Say No to the Towers) was quick to argue the high voltage towers would have a ‘devastating effect’ on tourism, agriculture and health. After probing the shady interests
By Laurence Dollimore
behind the project, we managed to get the story printed in the national newspapers in the UK. Robert Howard, singer of the Blow Monkeys, who has a home in the Lecrin Valley, described the scheme as ‘ravaging’ for the region saying it would ‘have devastating consequences environmentally and economically’. Driving Over Lemons writer Chris Stewart added it was ‘heedless destruction’ and showed private interests ‘riding roughshod over the will and rights of the people’. Now the Junta has effectively ruled that REE cannot build its second substation, which would connect the long lines of pylons the region. TheOlivePress-256x170-BIKacross E-4.indd 1 A subsequent appeal by the electrical giant has also been rejected, according to campaigners this week. “It’s great news,” Teresa McKeon told the Olive Press. “Thank you so much for all your articles and the campaign you launched. “We continue to work behind the scenes to try to safeguard the natural beauty of our landscape from this and other threats.” McKeon explained that REE's megaproject included two lines crossing the valley. The first had been published in the BOJA in November 2017 and was subsequently approved See pages 11 & 24 by the Junta before locals were able to raise public TheOlivePress-256x170-BIKE-4.in
Tel: 952 147 834 TM
dd 1
On the eve of Andalucia day, we look at the history of one its most famous group of residents, gypsies
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POWERLESS: The
POWER STRUGGL E: Christ Stewart and Dr Robert (inset above) join long, snaking X-GENESIS drummer protest against pylon project Stewart has joined Chris Over Lemons novel made the the fi- gion famous reEXCLUSIVE ght against a ‘motorway’ - added While supposedly necessary of growing collective his name to a By Tim McNulty power lines planned of campaigning to take electricity from Morocco dalucia’s iconic Alpujarras for An- expats battling the proposal. to Europe, it is set to ruin the untouched These include former The British author - whoseregion. beauty 80s star Doc- again private financial interests are of the area, Driving tor Robert, enjoyed by tens of thoufrom the Blow Monkeys, riding roughshod over the TM the rights of the people, will and sands of nature lovers each year. who leaving, as The Di No A Las Torres li- ever, a wake (Say No To of heedless destruc- The Towers) ves in the tion,” group n e a r b y this Stewart told the Olive Press, tage towers would argues high volhave L e c r i n “Oneweek. ting effect’ on tourism a ‘devastaday the tide will turn and and agriculV a l l e y , reasonable, more ture, as well as health. sustainable ways TM which is prevail; A but seemingly not yet; will a petition has been launched, while also set to it’s protest saw over a thousand so... peobe badly Theback to the barricades again.” ple march near the village outrage comes after it of Cona f f e c t e d vealed was re- char on Sunday. energy by the ca de España company Red Electri- The protest, which included (REE) plans to install expats many See pages 40 project. and children, is the start a network of some 211 of “ O n c e across giant pylons many to stop the scheme. the two valleys. Blow Monkeys singer Robert
Holdups
Black out
Celebrities join furious expats and locals to stop ‘abomination’ of pylons set to ruin series of celebrated tourist valleys
E
Mijas Costa
A BRITISH expat couple ‘disaster’ after they learntare facing a one of the ‘monstrous’ electricity masts to be built in their back garden.(left) is Steve Holdup, 62, and wife Karen, 61, who live on a self sufficient near Orgiva, could ironically farm even lose their sole source of solar panels, which are inpower from the way. The retired teachers, who moved from Cumbria a decade they have been kept in ago, claim energy company REE, andthe dark by out about the pylon from only found a friend. Steve told the Olive Press: “From having a fantastic house from scratch ten years we rebuilt ended up with a disaster. ago, we’ve “We put all of our life saving into it and now we face having a 220 volt tower directly to live with behind our home.” If built, the tower and adjoining vice road will cut right through sertheir field of 13 solar panels. “So somebody in Germany gets a load of electricity from Morocco as a result of putting a tower at the back of our house and we end the little electricity we have up losing for ourselves.” He added: “It has been the most chevalier fashion done in you could imagine. Howard, who has lived Valley for two decades, in the Lecrin ve Press: “The project told the Olimassive pylons across to take these an abomination. It will our valley is have devastating consequences environmen tally and economically. “It’s a magical place, a ‘Vale Of Happiness’, as the Moors place of natural beauty called it, a and conservation. “These giant pylons will scar the landscape, could destroy the local tourist businesses and ravage the environment. “There are no benefits people - we must fight at all for local Ecotourism is vital toto stop them.” the which was nominatedregion, UNESCO World Heritageas a site in 2017, mainly for having some of the world’s oldest olive groves.
NEWS: Start of the Olive Press Tel: 282 90902 2 12312 campaign 3 282in March 2019
902 123 282
awareness and fight it. “Technically this line can still be constructed,” she explained, “However, there is no substation to connect to. “So we continue to question the legality of a proposal which included a *Offer ends'fictitious' 30/11/18. Not valid for renewals. Subject substation, and of the Junto conditions . ta's approval of such a project.” Olive Press publisher Jon Clarke said last night: “This is amazing news and a great win for2/8/18 the environment. 17:01 “I’m proud that the Olive Press has been able to help achieve this victory, showing that the press still has relevance and can put pen to power. This is what a genuine people’s paper does.” It comes after REE reportedly ignored prohibition orders slapped down by town halls in Orgiva and Lanjaron which were designed to prevent work starting back in July last year. Councillors had issued the bans over ‘environmental fears’, but REE sent in diggers and dump trucks regardless, to begin preliminary groundwork. Now, for the time being at least, the electrical giant will have to find somewhere else for its electrical pylons. *Offer ends 30/11 /18. Not valid for renewals. Subject to conditions. UK BASED
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Some 245 businesses rural tourism and the work in which is set to have 109valley of the pylons - receives an estimated 8,000 visitors every weekend. The figures for the Alpujarras, which will see pylons ching all the way to the stretria border, are certainly Almemuch higher. Scottish expat Teresa Keon, 49, who has been Mcat the forefront of the campaign, the Olive Press: “The told whole place is going to be destroyed it is just awful... it really is awful.” Opinion Page 6