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south EDITION roundtownnews.com Orihuela Costa Postal service under threat
Issue 765
13-19 June 2014
RESIDENTS IN Campoamor, La Regia, La Zenia and Cabo Roig are receiving notifications in Spanish from the Post Office (Correos) informing them that since they do not receive their post in multimail boxes they will no longer receive deliveries at home p5
Torrevieja goes green TODAY’S GREEN warriors and those interested in doing their best for the environment may be presently delighted to know that Torrevieja has received an award for Green Commerce p8
Your home, in safe hands with Liberty Seguros READ MORE on p33
Mini breaks with Round Town Travel
Round Town Travel have chosen a few “special events” that you just can´t afford to miss with one of their great mini-breaks, that start at just 40 Euros per person!* p38
Gadget Inspector investigates Vileda ViRobi Cleaning Robot p55
Arthur and Tina keep a stiff upper lip and a sense off humour as they ‘celebrate’ their Golden Wedding Anniversary outside the British Consulate
Passport Office fails miserably by Keith Nicol WHEN ONE plans months in advance to celebrate a special event, and follows all the guidelines handed out by British Government departments, one usually feels confident that those plans will be fulfilled. However, for one Torrevieja couple, Tina and Arthur Leivers, all their best laid plans and following the rules were completely spoilt by what can only be described as the incompetence of the Her Majesty’s Passport Office. Last week, the Home Office almost comically sent out a press release asking those requiring a passport
to apply in advance. However, if the British Government had been on top of their game, this advice should have been given late last year and not six weeks before the main holiday season, as it now transpires, and is front page news in UK papers, that HM Passport Office is hopelessly understaffed, are months behind schedule and have been caught out lying and ‘passing the buck’ to try and cover for their incompetence. Tina and Arthur celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in May. For their Golden anniversary they had planned to return to the UK to be with their family and friends and maybe
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raise a class of Champagne to mark the occasion. Working well ahead of schedule, they booked flights back to the UK in February and in March paid the Card Shop, Quesada, an official outlet for all UK passport renewals, to start the process of applying for new passports for both of them because theirs’ were due to expire, although not until July 2014. They paid the full price plus extra for fast tracking the process and on March 17th, their passports arrived on the desk of the Passport Office ready for a quick return. However, after a two-week wait and with out any sign of their passports, they
contacted the Passport Office, only to find that their application had been sitting on a desk until March 28th and the application had not yet been processed. And an additional £55 pound service was paid for Fast Track. After a number of phone calls to the office and Seechatting page 34with Martin, Eric, Philip and two nice ladies, they said that Arthur’s had been processed but that Tina’s was in progress. Emails and phone calls continued but April had now passed and a week before their flights, their passports had still not arrived. Continued on page 8