FREE!
north EDITION
Your English Newspaper
roundtownnews.com
Final push in WFA battle
Pensioners hope to reach 10,000 signature target for petition to retain Winter Fuel Allowance payment. PAGE 4
Issue 727
20-26 SEPT 2013
Benidorm Pride triumph
Last weekend the town hosted its third annual Benidorm Pride - and what a great success it was.
PAGE 15
The Disparities in Best fuel/consumption of the results you are looking for an Best? Ifeconomic car to buy, do not PAGE
60
Business under siege by Jack Troughton
Jean and Alan Pentland outside their bar
See page 70
PAGE 63
rely on the makers’ figures!
BATTLING BAR owners Jean and Alan Pentland are involved in a long standing dispute with community chiefs overlooking an idyllic Costa Blanca sandy cove. The Jet Set Beach Bar is the only active business in ‘locales’ underneath the 42 homes of Venta Lanuza Apartments near El Campello but is currently separated from customers by a locked gate, a metal fence... and a security guard. Jean and Alan have run the bar for 11 years – Jet Set Beach Bar has been operating since 1991 - and have been in a increasingly hostile dispute over access with the Venta Lanuza community committee about access for the last three years. Ironically, their own fees help pay for both the security guard and the fence – money they maintain could be better used updating the building and grounds – while they have “wasted” hardearned cash on a series of four lawyers. During the summer months, the new gate which stands at the top of a 35-yearold public ramp down to the sand becomes a ‘Checkpoint Charlie’. On one side there is
the guard, on the other stands Alan. Both have keys to the gate. The rules are simple. People leaving the beach wanting to go to the bar are allowed through and customers from the bar can go down to the beach. The path of people just wanting to go to or leave the beach is barred. It almost sounds like the script of an Ealing Comedy as people’s motives are checked – except Jean and Alan’s livelihood is at stake and planned improvements for the business remain on ice as the battle rumbles on. SERIOUS “If this wasn’t so serious it would be hilarious,” Jean told RTN. “It has really affected our livelihood. It’s a crazy situation “The main problem is access to and from the beach. We have always had access; we pay to be part of the community. Last year 6,000€ was spent employing the security guard and we contribute to that.” Jean and Alan believe the community wants to shut them down, while making the beach as private as possible. “People cannot believe it because there are no private beaches in Spain.” Continued on page 6