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Mijas Costa
Vol. 15 Issue 385 www.theolivepress.es January 12th - January 25th 2022
Sweet sixteen dream escapes for 2022. See our five-page Spain travel special inside
Three Kings rain fails to lift reservoir levels THE festive rainfall has failed to improve the reservoir level in Andalucia. While the heavy December rain dropped an average of 124 litres per square metre around the region, the reservoirs sit at just 30% capacity. This compares to 40% for the same week last year, while a decade ago they were at over 60%. Malaga’s reservoirs are only 34% full, down 16% on last year, with La Vinuela in the Axarquia at just 16%. Almeria is at the most critical level with an average of just 8%, while Granada has a healthy 61%. The reservoir at Arcos de la Frontera is the fullest, at 92.19% which is well above the level of a year ago. Last year was officially the fifth warmest in history globally, while seventh in Spain.
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DARK TIMES List of shame as vast majority of most secretive town halls are in Andalucia AN alarming three quarters of the least transparent town halls are in Andalucia. A survey of 500 councils has named and shamed the local authorities that keep their residents in the dark when it comes to spending their
Some of the indicators measured included:
of the mayor and ; Past career history his councillors all officials ; Income received by rred by all offi; Travel expenses incu cials selection process ; The town hall staffvalue of vehicles or ber num ; The owned or leased accounts, reports ; Annual budgets, and audits contracting and ; Information about cedures subcontracting pro owned or con; Real estate agents ncil cou the to nected rent and historical ; The amount of cur t deb pal nici mu nding per resident ; Overall council spe of Ethics’ ; A municipality ‘Code l of public docu; Policy for disposa ments and records
By Dilip Kuner
cash and complying with regulations. Some 15 out of the worst 20 offenders are in the south of the country. Yet, two Andalucian towns - Fuengirola and Pozoblanco - lead the way and come top for transparency and keeping their citizens informed. Both councils provide information on 150 of 162 different indicators to tie at 92.59% transparency on the national list. Meanwhile, Malaga city was also praised, coming in 16th place with a score of 85.18%. But at the other end of the table is Sanlucar de Barrameda, in Cadiz, which could only provide information on four of the indicators for a miserable score of 2.47%. This placed it rock bottom jointly with Cabezas de San Juan, in Sevilla, in the list compiled by analyst firm Dyntra. Also on the list of shame is Coin, which was joint 471st with 6.17% or just 10 of the 162 indicators being marked positive. Manilva didn’t do much better, only ticking the right boxSee page 32 es on 17 of the indicators for a score of 10.49%. Al-
Tel: 952 147 834 TM
2 GOOD 2 BAD
NAMED AND SHAMED: Cabello Muñoz from Pozoblanco, Mula of Fuengirola, while (bottom) Toajas Mellado in Cabeza de San Juan and Mora Escobar in Sanlucar
haurin el Grande scraped a score of 20.37% to sit in 374th position. Popular resorts on the Costa del Sol did a little better, with Mijas (42.59%) sitting in mid-table in 191st place, having once been near the bottom. Torremolinos scored 37.65% to come in at 229th while Marbella is comfortably in the top half in 71st place (66.67%). Benalmadena is 185th (43.83%), Estepona 205th
(40.74%) and Alhaurin de la Torre scored 41.36% to be number 200 on the list. Ronda was also mid-table at number 261 (33.95%). Dyntra measures the public information made available by local government, public authorities, political parties and politicians. Opinion Page 6