Two important news items (part one )

Valencian central government are starting to move on anyone who is letting a property without the required paperwork. Tourism authorities want to crack down on unregistered holiday lets of apartments and villas along the whole region's coastline. I have heard some expats say it’s my property I can do what I like with it. Not so, an apartment must be registered as a holiday let before you can market it as such. Registration will not be automatic, local authorities may refuse the licence if they consider your property is only suitable for residential use. Personally I can see the logic in this as it would go someway to preventing whole areas of towns and villages becoming ghost towns out of season. The owners who comply with the law are suffering as they cannot afford to lower there prices to far, they have taxes etc. to pay, but that’s not the whole story. An illegal let may well have consequences with regards insurance, quality of product and effects on the community it is in. Quite aside from the fact that a community of owners can its self be fined if property within it is used as holiday lets, and the building/complex is not registered as required, there can be detrimental effect on community life when large amounts of people are arriving and using, or misusing faculties. Sadly it is often the case that holidaymakers will not respect the fact that some people have to get up and go to work in the morning.If they or their family do not own the property they are in they have no investmant , financial or social in the area. Rules for using pools etc. will be ignored and residents are even subject to abuse if they try to remonstrate. I would think a claim against a community insurance policy would be on shaky ground to if the company found illegal letting was going on. If more and more properties in a residential area become purely holiday lets, it means less and less people signing on at the padron. This leads to cuts in services as council income decreases. This is the no doubt the reason holiday letting licences are not granted for what are primarily residential. When owners let and do not pay taxes they make no financial contribution the governments coffers which does have a serious knock on effect for local services. It’s not all bad news for holidaymakers either. Health and safety issues should be better addressed under a licence system. The type of facilities holidaymakers seek should be more available in areas which are catering to tourist.

Happy Birthday Pedro

Our Popular local Bar proprietor Pedro celebrated the big 50 yesterday. Pedro and his wife have run the Bar in the pool square for 4 years now. They work long long hours but are always excellent hosts, friendly cheerful and welcoming to one and all. Pedro showed his usual community spirit when he gave everyone a free drink. He was obviously well pleased when we all sang Happy birthday to him followed by three rousing well deserved cheers.

Suzy the cat in a tizzy

Suzy is a darling but when she makes up her mind there's no changing it. Suzy seems to have done just that with regards Billie the dog. Billie so wants to be friends and is very enthusiastic, Suzy is have none of it. So its all been a game of musical animals for the last few weeks or is it more like a french farce, dog in one door cat out another and visa versa, and never the twane shall meet.
Jo and Gary around the corner, other end of the streeet from Lil around the corner, have taken in another wee stray dog. The ever popular local vet Javier told Jo about this little white ball of fluff the other day. Its a year old and had been found running wild on the streets of a local town so was but in the pound. Fearing it would soon be put down Jo and Gary have taken it in. They say until its found a new home but somehow ........ well I don't think it will be moving on any time soon.

Flaming July

Its official July was the hottest for 40 years. It is still very very hot so lets see if August breaks any records. Fires are still raging in the tinder dry country. After a quiet start holiday makers are starting to arrive as they try to escape the UK rain. Guardamar of course is always busy as it is a favorite destination for holidaymakers of the home grown variety from Madrid. Beaches are looking pretty crowed most especially right down at the waters age where it is coolest. Go after 4 o'clock and you can catch some shade from the beach houses as the sun goes over the top. Its great to sit in the park too where there is always some shade from the trees. perfect for a little siesta after a nice lunch in one of the many great restaurants in the town.

Food For Thought

One of the good things about fostering a dog is it does get you out for a walk in the evenings. When the day has been so hot it would be oh, so easy not to have a walk, but with a dog in the house you just have to make the effort. We like to walk where the current pooch can have some "off lead time" so we often head through the campo behind the Thai restaurant. This also gives us a chance to see what's being grown locally. We frequently see the local farmer, and his wife, working in the evening, guess its cooler then. My, but these people have a hard life, very tough. They've been working on clearing the artichokes that have gone over and preparing the soil to plant more. They use cuttings from the old plants once the ground is prepared. After this they flood the field from the irrigation system then runs through the whole of the Vega Baja. Boy does that stir the mossies up!
We had a chat to the farmer the other evening and he told us that he was only being offered 10 cents each for the melons he was growing. He blames this on imports from other countries and other areas of Spain. Two days later he ploughed all his melons into the ground. I guess he just needs to plant a new crop of something he hopes will pay him for all his hard work.