Olive Press Newspaper - Issue 153

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la sala NEW LANDMARK: 1,000 FACEBOOK ‘LIKES’ TO GO WITH 2,000 TWITTER FOLLOWERS. SEE P6 www.theolivepress.es TM

the olive press - January 24- February 06, 2013

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The original and only English-language investigative newspaper in Andalucía

the RAT PACK

30TH JANUARY 2013

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AFTER a ten-year battle and nearly €100,000 spent installing electricity pylons expats Ken and Val Kendal are still living in the Dark Ages. Despite going through dozens of hoops – and meticulously filling in forms for both the local and regional authorities – the couple in Yunquera have been told they cannot have electricity. Due to a recent change in the law they have been told by their local town hall that it would be illegal to flick the switch. “That is after we spent all this money carefully installing a dozen pylons exactly where we were told,” Ken Kendal, 66, from Manchester told the Olive Press. “It has been going on for a decade and at every stage the Junta, town hall and the Ministry of Industry has had to pass everything. “And just as we get to the final hurdle they do this to us. It has become a very stupid situation and we desperately want answers.” The couple had moved into their home in stunning countryside, near the vil-

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WASTE: A pylon and (top right) Ken

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Expats spend €90,000 installing 12 pylons and cables across their land only to be told, sorry, we can’t give you electricity

and got in touch with Endesa in the hope of installing electricity. But nothing was straightforward, in particular because the houses originally only had licences as ‘casas de aperos’ – basically a tool shed or The cortijo that barn. But, with the help of inspired Lorca’s Blood Wedding the authorities and See full electricity company story on Sevillana Endesa they page 8 struggled on and got the pylons and cabling installed in exactly the correct way. Everything seemed to be going to plan until they were told by the town hall that because of a change in the law last year they couldn’t get the right permission needed to turn on the power.“The new

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Don’t let the Don’t thein bankslet cash banks cash in www.hifx.co.uk www.hifx.co.uk see page 13 seepage page13 4 see

January 24 - Feb 6, 2013

LIGHT YEARS BEHIND!

lage, in 2002. After initially installing solar panels for electricity and purchasing a back up generator they joined forces with two Spanish neighbours

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EXCLUSIVE By Frances Leate law means you can only have electricity in the countryside for a shed for animals and not a house for humans,” continued Kendal. “It is so unfair... Everything was in place and all Endesa had to do was install a meter and turn the electric on. “But the town hall has told Endesa it is not possible because of this law, which no-one, including staff at Endesa had heard of. It has become a total nightmare.” When the Olive Press spoke to the deputy mayor of the town hall he insisted however, that it was not its fault.

“The problem is that by law we are now not allowed to give a licence of first occupation to any house that has a licence as a tool shed and that is what Endesa require. “Of course we really sympathise with their plight and know they have spent a mountain of money. “If a new attempt by their neighbours to get a licence does not work, then we will try and get it sorted out by getting a licence for a water pump. “Somehow we will get this sorted out,” he promised.

PM to probe €22m PP slush fund SPAIN’S leader Mariano Rajoy has ordered an ‘exhaustive’ audit of his party’s accounts amid claims that top officials received illegal cash payments. PP bosses were allegedly given ‘cash-stuffed envelopes’ as bonus payments from a €22 million slush fund controlled by former PP treasurers. The allegations stretch back to the 1990s and implicate former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and even Rajoy himself. The money was allegedly handled by former treasurers Alvaro Lapuerta and Luis Barcenas, with the latter now under investigation for alleged money laundering and tax evasion. The first audit will be conducted by party treasurer Turn to Page 10

Cudeca man missing

Have you been affected by something similar? Email newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call 952 895 230.

Horse burgers withdrawn on the Costa del Sol..see page 45

Full story on page 5


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