News in Brief for Alicante province's Costa Blanca area

Drive through TRAFFIC returns to normal in Benidorm’s remodelled Avenida del Mediterraneo on February 7 and the Plaza Triangular will be able to reopen to vehicles now that work is practically finished on the Technohito tower. Access to the Old Town via Avenida Doctor Perez Llorca has also been restored.
More homes ALTEA town hall will spend €57,000 on restoring a municipally-owned property in the Old Town, built in 1920 and originally catalogued as a ruin. Found to be structurally sound, it will be turned into three small apartments to be rented as social housing or to provide emergency accommodation.
Come hither  CONFRIDES (population 270) is abolishing Capital Gains tax, fees for processing building licences, occupying public property, putting up phone masts and issuing official documents.  Mayor Ruben Pico explained that the town hall wants to attract investment and, consequently, more jobs by cutting down on bureaucracy and red tape.
Fire away WORK finished on a firebreak protecting the Puig Campana mountain in  Finestrat’s Realet, Sima and the Font del Moli districts.  This has cost the town hall €31,145 to carry out, prompting mayor Juanfran Perez Llorca’s complaint that the project had received no financial help from the regional government.
Board games VILLAJOYOSA’S Parks and Gardens department installed three exercise machines in the Barbera del Aragones park, together with three tables with incorporated chairs.  These have built-in boards for playing chess, parchis (similar to ludo) and the Juego de la Oca, whose various pitfalls are not unlike snakes and ladders.