Heading to the Wild Wild West! Stunning new glamping venue where you feel like the star of a spaghetti western See page 10
CULTURAL DELIGHTS
Discover the 15 Spanish cities that are putting on free music, dance and theatre events for a very special anniversary
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Vol. 5 Issue 139 www.theolivepress.es September 5th - September 18th 2024
SPRUNG A LEAK
Tragic bull collapses and dies at traditional Costa Blanca festival
A NEW municipal pool is losing 500 litres of water a week, despite costing €6million to build. The pool in Javea took three years to build and cost €1 million over budget.
Fix
It will not open to the public until construction firm Contratas Vilor fixes it. Javea mayor, Rosa Cardona, confirmed the work fortunately has a one year warranty from the builders.
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A BULL died while taking part in a traditional bous a la mar in Javea. The event saw a bull ring set up near the beach, from where the animal was forced to run towards the shore. Spectators lined up along the route, with many deciding to run alongside the bull and jump in the water alongside it. On Saturday, the bull got into trouble after jumping into the water while trying to gore spectators. Rescuers lifted the animal’s snout out of the water and managed to bring it back to dry land, but after a few steps it collapsed, witnesses said. Its handler tried to revive him but the bull died on the beach. Around 100 people protested on Sunday, carrying banners with the words, ‘Torture is not culture’.
FIGHTBACK BEGINS Radical move sees popular Costa Blanca resort ban new tourist licences and target illegal owners
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IT’S been a hot potato rumbling on since the start of the summer with anti-tourist protests in Spain garnering headlines worldwide. And now, as the visitor numbers finally start to drop, yet another Costa Blanca town has joined a trend in suspending new tourist licences. L’Alfas del Pi has joined fellow Marina Baixa towns, Altea and Polop, in limiting new tourist accommodation. The council agreed on a two-year ban at a heated plenary meeting, which will likely affect hundreds of expats and locals planning to rent to
By Alex Trelinski
tourists. The key town hall session also agreed to bring in new measures to clamp down on unlicensed properties through a new local law. “We will prosecute owners of undeclared properties or those who don’t follow the basic rules,” said council spokesperson Toni Such. The problem has heightened as the number of tourist rentals has grown exponentially over the last few years. L’Alfas council received 61 requests
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for licences in 2021, rising to 145 the following year and 230 last year. The first nine months of this year alone have so far had 237 applications. “We took the decision for the suspension due to this proliferation of requests,” Such added. There are already 1,764 tourist rentals in the municipality, which appear on the official Valencian government registry. The council realised it had to act as increasing numbers of complaints came in about illegal homes and the ‘nuisance’ they caused for locals, particularly in blocks of flats. Villajoyosa and Denia are also studying similar measures due to concerns over tourist ‘oversaturation’. All municipalities in the Valencian Community have extra powers to deal with illegal properties after a new regional law was passed earlier this summer. Nationally, there have been a series of protests against tourist flats,
with campaigners blaming AirBnb-style rentals for rent increases that drive locals out of the market. These came as reports showed the cost of housing has increased by 68% over the past 10 years, while wages haven’t increased. Demos have been held in Malaga, Sevilla, Palma and the Canary Islands, over the past few months, each highlighting discontent at mass tourism. In Barcelona, demonstrators barricaded hotels and restaurants along their route while others chanted ‘Tourists, go home’, while carrying placards with similar messages. Barcelona announced the scrapping of all tourist flat licences by 2029, after Madrid suspended all new permits. Spain’s Housing Minister, Isabel Rodriquez, has pledged to try to reduce the ‘uncontrolled proliferation’ of tourist flats, which are reducing the supply of long term rentals and, consequently, raising prices in large cities and tourist areas. This came after the Supreme Court allowed several Community of Owners associations to ban tourist lets.
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