News in Brief for Alicante province’s Costa Blanca South area

Fire ready ALICANTE province’s Fire Brigades Consortium added another €5 million to its budget to improve equipment and services. Almost €2.9 million of this will be spent on acquiring five light fire engines, a heavy fire engine for fighting forest fires, four rescue vans, three electric cars and two drones.

Drone invader ORIHUELA’S Policia Local’s Air Resources Unit confiscated a drone that was being used to fumigate crops. The person controlling it lacked all the necessary permits, was using banned chemical products and operated the drone near the River Segura only 200 metres away from the city centre, police sources revealed.

Voucher fever THE €50 vouchers worth €100 in Torrevieja shops disappeared within an hour of the April 4 launch of the town hall’s €350,000 campaign to boost local commerce. Most were acquired online although shop-owners’ association Apymeco reserved €150,000 for shoppers to acquire in person at the Consumer’s Office.  

April snow APRIL 4 dawned in Alicante province with snow above 1,000 metres on the interior’s mountain ranges coupled with Force 7 and 8 north-east winds that whipped up five-metre waves along the coast.  Fishing fleets remained in port and huge waves broke several of the Guardamar fish farm’s cages.

Smoother road COX town hall allocated €213,000 for improvements to Avenida Pais Valenciano connecting the town centre with Callosa.  Although this is not the only link between both municipalities, it is the most-used and will also give access to the new high speed AVE railway station, once this is opened.