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NORTH EDITION
Your English Newspaper
Issue 559
JULY 2 -8 2010
‘Land grab’ desperados
Lights!.. Camera!..Action!
The 22nd Festival de Cine de L´Alfaz del Pi, starts today, Friday 2nd July and continues until the 11th, sponsored by the Alfaz Town Hall • p6
Summertime weekend night market Marina Alta traders have launched a summertime weekend night market as an added attraction for visitors and boost business. • p7
by Jack Troughton
Changes to Spanish VAT rates White & Baos remind readers that as from July 1st 2010, the new VAT (IVA) rates will apply, find out the three different bands inside. • p31
Aunty Virus
Aunty Virus answers your weekly technical questions, this week connecting to WiFi • p56
Blatter’s TV own goal Andy Kay’s weekly column this week talks about putting the blame on Fifa President Sepp Blatter for consistently arguing against video technology being used in football • p70
Dee Caffari MBE at Calpe
Yachtswomen sails by RECORD BREAKING round the world yachtswoman Dee Caffari MBE blew along the Costa Blanca waters this week in the final stages of the round Spain race. Read her full story on page 5.
CASH STRAPPED developers wielding Valencia’s notorious ‘land grab’ laws are desperately making cash demands of land owners to ‘stay alive’, it was claimed this week. It was said in an attempt to finance loans raised for construction projects in a stalled construction market, they were attempting to bully residents into handing over a fortune in ‘urbanisation costs’. In a sinister twist to the land grab saga, veteran campaigner Charles Svoboda believes development companies needed money to satisfy backers. And he advises victims to exercise all their legal rights in delaying payment to the companies involved. He said: “Push the developer to the wall – he is the weakest link in the chain. In most cases, when you fight back, their nerves become a little frayed.” Charles, a founder member of the AUN, the group fighting to protect property owners’ human rights and the environment, was speaking to residents in La Fustera, Benissa, caught up in an urbanisation plan. Homeowners have recently re-
ceived letters from Breviator SL, a company looking to develop Urbanisation Carrions, some 300 houses in the hills behind Fustera Beach. Last week they received demands from Breviator demanding €44.55 per square metre of land – however, if paying in kind, land was valued at a mere €24 per square metre. And Benissa Town Hall actually bases its rateable value on the same land at €120 per square metre. According to neighbourhood group Vecinos de Benissa, there are around 1,500 empty houses in Benissa, while urbanisations Pedramala 1 and 2 were not completed, and another 120 homes were due to be built at Raco de Galena. Warning people not to panic, Charles alleged: “One of the reasons this is being rushed forward now, when there is absolutely no demand (for houses) whatsoever, is they want to get ahead and get their money and run before the process is pushed through.” Carrions was first approved in 2004 and Breviator came forward in 2008 “when there was a prospect of making some money”, putting forward a bond worth more than €530,000. continued on page 3
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