Torre
del Oro
Sevilla
In
the news
Schools lose out in Valencia
Marches
around the Alicante region have been held to express
anger at the cut backs and lack of funding for schools.
Public schools have not received money from Valencia
for almost two terms and there are proposed changes
to teachers' salaries and conditions of service.
Teachers and parents are worried that what is happening
is the systematic undermining of the state education
system in favour of the private sector. This can only
lead to a two tier system for those who have and those
who have not. A worrying state of affairs when we are
talking about the future of children, wherever we might
live. For more information: iberosphere.com
Working
longer = economic prosperity?
In
Spain at the moment we are faced with a reduction in
the number of bank holidays and the disappearance
of the siesta. But will this make the country more
prosperous? We've found a couple of interesting articles
that look at whether Europeans should 'up' their working
life game.
worldcrunch.com
nytimes.com
This article considers whether there might be better
ways of improving productivity:
iberosphere.com
Electricity
Bills
If
you elected to stay with your electricity provider's
government controlled rate rather than going into the
free market scheme you can expect a change to the frequency
with which you receive bills. They are reverting back
to bi-monthly billing with all bills being calculated
from a reading rather than an estimate. Good news and
something of a relief for those finding the ups and
downs of estimates and actual, difficult to weather.
What
to expect from your ITV
I'm
just about to experience my first ITV test with
a scooter. I found this account of what to expect (albeit
for a car) was pretty accessible:
tumbit.com
A
bit of ship spotting
I
found this rather intriguing Marine Traffic site.
I'm not sure who it's of use to but if you've got a
spare few minutes and don't know what to do with them
you might like to take a look:
marinetraffic.com
It shows which ships are out at sea and tells you what
they are and where they are going. You can adjust it
to focus on wherever you are in the world. I'm more
of a landlubber myself but still found it an interesting
distraction.
Looking
for Spanish classes?
The
Leader Newspaper are organising Spanish lessons
in the Orihuela Costa region to start from middle to
late February and running for 12 weeks subsequently.
They are aimed at all different levels and might be
worth a look if you're keen to learn:
theleader.info
An
interesting article
Or
at least I thought so. It helps explain why it's so
difficult to find films in their native language
in Spain.
iberosphere.com
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Complimentary
tax
As
you will already know if you've been reading our column
in the local newspaper, RTN: roundwotnnews.com
complimentary tax demands are being issued thick and
fast. This is the tax which can be levied up to five
years after a sale took place.
It is a 7% tax on the difference between the Tax
Authority's valuation of what the property is worth
and what it is sold for. It's something to be aware
of if you are considering buying a bargain. Although
it's hard to estimate how much the tax might be, you
can appeal if you receive a tax demand. Ábaco have
had a very high success rate when appealing against
this tax. For more information: abacoconnect.com
Welcome
Costa del Sol
This
will be one of the first newsletters some of our new
Costa del Sol clients receive. After our recent
non-resident campaign through Eye on Spain we have an
increasing number of clients from this region. Welcome
and please submit any suggestions or requests you might
have for our newsletter.
Hold
on to your old passport
What
do you do with your old passport? Most people probably
keep it somewhere but aren't too concerned if it gets
buried amongst other memorabilia. After all, do you
really want to be reminded that you had bad hair days
ten years ago too?
However you might feel about your old photo, we do recommend
that you keep your old passport somewhere handy. Your
Spanish mobile phone or landline contract might
be based upon this passport's number and you might be
asked to recall it some time in the future.
San
Javier v. Corvera
The
battle of the airports continues. One of our clients
has asked us to bring the discussion up-to-date. Here
goes.
Currently the main airport in the Murcia region is San
Javier airport. A little distance from the city
of Murcia itself, San Javier has been a very popular
airport for those with properties along the Orihuela
coast. However, it has a rival. Corvera airport
has been publicised as replacing it, at least for commercial
flights.
There remains uncertainty about the exact opening/ closing
of the respective airports and debate continues. The
change over has not been helped by the collapse of the
property market and the economic downturn in other European
countries, like the UK. However, the last projection
is that Corvera will open in the summer/autumn 2012
and San Javier will return to being a military aircraft
base.
Recent images released in La Verdad newspaper show Corvera
airport close to completion and now at the 'beginning
testing' stage. Jet2 have announced that they will start
flying from there in November 2012.
The new airport is closer to Murcia itself and further
inland. It is 30km away from the existing San Javier
airport and will mean a longer journey for those used
to landing there and living in the Orihuela Costa region.
However, there are other accounts suggesting that it
is more likely to be 2013 when Corvera is open
and that in the meantime San Javier is actually still
having improvements made to it. It is claimed that because
the contracts were already issued the work is to continue
even thought there are plans to scale San Javier down:
costa-news.com
The plot thickens as some airlines still seem to be
taking San Javier as a going concern. Ryan air announcing
the opening of a route between San Javier and Edinburgh
simplynetworking.es
Just another airport controversy to add to the list
it seems.
We invite your
comments,
feedback and
suggestions.
Please e-mail us at...
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