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Issue 570
The ‘Ogre’ has gone Andy Hermida has resigned as President of FC Torrevieja and he tells RTN his story
PAGE 12
Safari park closes
SOUTH EDITION
17 - 23 SEPTEMBER 2010
Jack Troughton reports on the sad news that last Friday the gates to El Vergel Safari Park were closed and visitors turned away... p8
Government decision jeopardises vote registration
Emergency Centre foundation stone is laid
The Mayor of Orihuela tells us why she is happy although the laying of the first stone was actually six months behind schedule and subsequently the opening has now been delayed until early 2012. • p5
Dennis’s Fan Club done in Paul Watts breaks the shocking news that the Dennis the Menace Fan Club had ceased to be. It is no more. • p20
by Louise Clarke
Purchase in Spain
English and Spanish Solicitors Marc White and Carlos Baos provide general guidelines and steps to consider and take into account for anyone interested in purchasing a second-hand property. • p29
Growing autumn and winter vegetables Clodagh and Dick Handscombe continue with their helpful hints and information for your gardens in Spain • p46
Society golf: casual or formal?
Noel Eastwell’s weekly column this week asks the question of Golf Societies: Should you form a constitution and run things formally? • p63
Bruce Willis snapped leaving his trailer
Bruce Willis filming on coast A-LIST ACTOR Bruce Willis was snapped leaving his trailer in the rear of a luxury limo heading for the film set of the action thriller The Cold Light of Day in Moraira this week. A member of Hollywood’s elite, he is starring in the joint United States and Spanish production with Sigourney Weaver and Henry Cavill. Turn to page 6 for the full story.
A SPANISH Government decision to cut costs will mean that the voting registration procedures for EU residents in Spain could be severely curtailed. RTN’s No Vote, No Voice campaign has been well received by provincial and local authorities as well as the British Consulate in Alicante and the Embassy in Madrid. But this week, the voter registration office in Madrid has announced that it will be severely curtailing voting registration possibilities for next year’s local elections for those EU citizens (in the majority, British) residents who have lived in Spain prior to 2007. Contrary to the procedure followed in previous local elections, those EU residents on the padron before the last local elections in May 2007 WILL NOT receive a voting application form by post, which simply needs to be signed and returned, postage paid, to the Censo Electoral. Whatever their circumstances, they will have to go personally to their local Town Hall to fill in a voting application form.
Bob Houliston from Orihuela Costa opposition party CLARO, told RTN: “It is obvious that this restriction will affect the great majority of EU citizens who moved to Spain and took up residence in the boom years before the present crisis began in 2007. In our opinion, it is a deliberate and targeted decision which will result in the number of EU citizens registered to vote being kept at the present very low levels. “It will introduce discrimination between those who were registered on the padron after the 2007 local elections, who will receive the voting application form by post and those registered on the padron before 2007 who will not. It will also widen the gap between voting registration facilities for the Spanish, who are automatically registered on the voters list when they register on the padron and the nonSpanish, long term EU residents who are going to lose an important facility to enable them to register to vote.” Continued on page 3