Latest News in Brief from Almeria

There are always a lot of interesting and unusual News in Brief stories to enjoy in Euro Weekly News.

Designer death

It has been announced that Spanish stylist and accessories designer Jesús Vera died on Friday February 16, at his home in the town of Vera having decided to end his design career due to ill health in December 2019 although he was still active on social media until the end.

Depopulation

There may be a major risk of smaller villages in Almeria simply running  out of people in the long term as according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) Almeria is the Andalucian province with the highest number of towns with no children aged under four.

Business support

The Almeria Chamber of Commerce and Mojacar Council have agreed that the Chamber should open an office in the town so that it can advise businesses how best to benefit from  programmes financed by the European Union.

Top Soprano

Young Soprano Carmen Larios, who in January of this year won the XIX New Voices Contest for Opera singers held in Sevilla will be preforming at the Convent of San Francisco on March 2 in her home town of Cuevas del Almanzora.

Pressure group

The Association ‘No to Dreambeach in El Toyo’ which is totally opposed to a music festival due to take place in the Almeria suburb later this year has now taken its complaints to the president of the Junta de Andalucia after claiming that the local delegate ignored them.

Pyramid trip

Those who would like to visit the pyramids and other fantastic archaeological sites in Egypt can take advantage of a special holiday being organised by Sama Travel which sees a charter flight from Almeria to Cairo on May 25, a full itinerary and return from Luxor.

Going green

For the first time, the  Almanzora Group of Friends  has decided that it would be fun to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. As it falls on a Sunday this year, the event will be held the day before, March 16 running from 11am to 1pm at their Library and Social Centre in Plaza San Antonio,  Albox.

Food and drink will have an Irish theme and as well as the usual stalls and raffle there will a few short and fun ‘hand out’ quizzes. Everyone is welcome but if you do decide to go, try to keep in with the Irish theme by wearing something green.

Sink hole

A reader observes that some 15 years ago, a sink hole appeared on the Paseo del Mediterraneo in Mojacar and it is still there!

Stagnant water collects there whenever it rains and thus it becomes a breeding area for mosquitos and in this time of hot weather, the stagnant water smells and is hardly pleasant for visitors to the area where there are nearby bars and restaurants.

The hole is on land owned by a private company and our reader asserts that although complaints have been made to both the land owner and Mojacar Council no action has been taken to remedy the problem.

School holidays

As Andalucia Day (February 28) falls on a Wednesday this year, each province in Andalucia is able to decide on which days schools will be open or closed.

Jaen is the most parsimonious with the holiday as children attending its schools just have the single day off whilst  several provinces have opted for the entire week starting February 26.

In Almeria, the authorities have settled for a ‘happy medium’ with schools closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday which is probably good news for children but not such good news for parents (or in many cases grandparents) who will have to make arrangements for the young ones in particular to be looked after.