TRAFFIC JAM BLUES OUR VIEW

does nothing to improve under ‐standing and acceptance of other people’s beliefs whatsoever.

Incidentally, I do remember, dur‐ing my experience of those far off Saudi days, the whole month being great fun for those of the privileged elite, who would simply party it up all night and sleep all day. Nice work if you can get it.

Even I enjoyed visiting offices and helping a somewhat devious associ‐ate deliver illegal alcohol in the middle of the night. After all most of us enjoy a drink at Christmas, I can categorically assure you that in the 70s, Ramadan was no excep ‐tion.

It may have changed now, but I very much doubt it. In fact I was in‐formed that during the 70s Saudi Arabia was the world’s biggest im ‐porter of JW whisky. This couldn’t be shown on any books so they al ‐ways paid cash. I wonder where all that disappeared to!?

AFTER years of pain following the 2008 banking crisis, much of Spain has seen a remarkable recovery as far as housing is concerned and in many parts of the country the sight of towering cranes indicates the amount of new accommodations that is being built.

It’s good news for the economy as it creates employ‐ment and also generates income for local councils espe‐cially as many of the buyers, particularly in popular holi‐day areas, are foreigners either purchasing a holiday home or moving to Spain permanently.

Whilst there are fewer British buyers there are large numbers of Germans and other Europeans who don’t need to follow the 90/180 day rule, so the market is cur‐rently very buoyant. There is however a major problem that certainly affects the Costa del Sol and we believe many of the areas where the seven editions of Euro Weekly News are distributed. Basically, the more new builds on previously vacant land, the more traffic and in many cases, the infrastructure is not keeping up with the developments, so that whilst each new urbanisation has brand new roads, they simply lead to existing roads which can no longer cope with the volume of traffic hit‐ting them. In addition, whilst the government is encour‐aging drivers to take public transport, there are whole ar‐eas where there are no trains and buses of course get caught up in the ever‐growing traffic jams.

Spain has a huge amount of EU funding and is invest‐ing left, right and centre, but with pressure to add or in‐crease costs on toll roads, the country will see empty motorways and even more traffic on the free roads.