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COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA
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FREE Vol. 5 Issue 123 www.theolivepress.es September 5th - September 18th 2024
Battling the cockfighting mafia gang A MAYOR is demanding urgent action after he and a fellow councillor had their cars blown up over a battle with an illegal cockfighting gang. Aspe leader Antonio Puerto has received countless death threats since the council shut down a cockfighting venue in January. He has now asked the authorities for extra police as the gang - also involved in drugs - started to act more brazenly. The latest incidents saw the car of Aspe’s councillor for security set on fire, last week, while a van owned by the mayor’s father was burnt in July. The problems began after a raid by 60 police at Gallera El Chato, where over 200 spectators were watching a fight, in January. A total of 19 people were arrested and 150 others were identified at the venue, which was air conditioned and had electric screens hanging over the ring. The raid led to the council closing down the warehouse bar for not having a licence and for a total of 19 separate crimes, including drug trafficking. “What has been happening with the threats and car attacks is the work of a drug mafia that wants to roam freely,” revealed mayor Puerto this week. “We urgently need to tackle them head on and need the authorities to send us more police.”
MODERN: Cockfight venue
Tragic bull collapses and dies at traditional Costa Blanca festival
FIGHTBACK BEGINS Radical move sees popular Costa Blanca resort ban new tourist licences and target illegal owners
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 tourists. The key town hall session also agreed to bring in new measures to clamp
By Alex Trelinski
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 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.
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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’.
JIMMY Carr has claimed most British expats are ‘criminals’, ‘tax evading’ or ‘running away from something’. “But most of you’ve been here so long I’m sure you can go home now without any problems,” the comic told a soldout audience in Marbella. He then insisted Brexit wasn’t ‘so bad’. And the UK was ‘flirting again’ with Europe and it would be like ‘getting back with an ex’. Part of a 45-country global tour, he told the Olive Press backstage that he was ‘constantly on the move’, having arrived from a gig in Somerset the night before and heading to Mallorca the following day. “I’m off to Canada on
Wednesday and have been to places as far and wide as Australia and Japan, where incredibly people understand me,” he insisted. After maligning Torremolinos, he said he had spent ‘two great weeks’ in Marbella this summer and even showed interest in buying a property in the resort. It came after an estate agent in the audience shouted out he could help him find a villa. “I know estate agents are pushy twats but now they’re trying to sell me a home during a show,” he joked. “I might be interested though.” The 90-minute gig at the Marbella Arena was part of his Laughs Funny tour.
“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.
How did they do that ?
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