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north EDITION
16 MAR-22 MAR 2012
Spain wins deficit leeway
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy threw down the gauntlet at an EU summit in Brussels by saying this year’s achievable target was 5.8% of GDP p4
HELP for valley community
In a new role, HELP aims to directly aid vulnerable and isolated people, both young and old p5
25€ Cashback To celebrate their 25 years in business AJB Insurance is offering 25€ cashback on all new property insurances contracted from March 2012. See their advert on p15
It’s fiesta time - Elvis style!
The second annual Benidorm Elvis Fiesta returns to Town over the weekend of 30 March to 1 April p37
Regulations for carrying in the back seat Recent changes in Spanish regulations prohibit the carriage of anything in the rear seats p60
Crumbling rock – the Zunnebeld home is centre with a diamond shaped window
Battle to save home by jack troughton
OWNERS OF a Costa Blanca home are fighting to prevent the local council condemning their cliff top family home as a ‘ruin’. The house and other homes in pretty Finestrat are perched on top of a rock face that engineers believe is moving away from the mountainside. In January more than150 tons of rubble slipped down the face and onto the road below – at first there were fears the landslide was an earthquake.
Fortunately no-one was injured. At a town hall meeting last week, the local authority called for every building in the terrace of houses to undergo a technical safety inspection, a sort of MOT for buildings. However, the local authority wants to declare the Zunnebeld property a ruin - unsafe and uninhabitable. Rebecca Zunnebeld said the family’s lawyers be-
lieved it was the council’s responsibility to prevent another rock fall and maintain the stability of the mountain, while the provincial government had a duty to insure safety on the road below. She told RTN her parents went to the town hall three years ago when a huge crack opening in the cellar of the home and a geological study revealed the rock face was sliding. Continued on page 3