Olive Press Costa Blanca North and Valencia Issue 106

CHEAP SEATS!

CHEAP cinema tickets for pensioners is the latest promise from PSOE Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in the run up to local elections next weekend.

The nationwide promise will encourage the over-65s by slashing cinema tickets to just €2 on Tuesdays.

It comes after the socialist leader also promised subsidised domestic and European interrail train tickets for youngsters.

“The pandemic forced cinemas to close and other adverse effects,” said Sanchez. “We need to make culture a state policy.”

His party has promised €10 million for the plan, while €170 million has been set aside to guarantee a 50% discount for all 18 to 30-year olds on train travel in the summer months.

SYSTEM FAILURE

A GIANT two thirds of British voters have been eliminated from the electoral roll for the forthcoming May elections.

A staggering 61,500 expats have lost the right to vote in the May 28 council elections.

The 63% drop comes with a large

TheKingandI

Two thirds of Brits scythed from the electoral roll for May elections

percentage of British residents failing to re-register their right to vote by the January deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: Our man at the Coronation, See page 6

Figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE) show the giant fall in non-Spanish participation with councils putting it down to lower British registrations.

The number of British expats registered to vote in the last local elections in 2019 (97,585) has now dropped to just 36,543 residents, the official stats reveal.

The alarming drop of 61,042 people has come about as a consequence of Brexit with British residents now having to separately register to vote every four years, as well as joining the padron . They are no longer automatically included on the roll. Data shows that Brits represent just 8.8% of the foreigners regis-

By Alex Trelinski & Alberto Lejarraga

tered to vote in Spain this year, a considerable decrease from 21% in 2019.

Just 11,340 British expats are registered to vote in Alicante and 1,266 in Valencia province. This is a ‘system failure’, according to expat councillor Scott Marshall, in Benahavis, near Marbella.

The Councillor of Tourism blamed it on unnecessary paperwork and a failure to better explain the new rules.

“Because of bureaucracy, British residents have had to re-register again and many of them did not remember or realise on time,” he told the Olive Press Mijas councillor Bill Anderson

agreed. “The numbers don’t surprise me as many Brits got caught short with the registration process,” he told the Olive Press “We were not notified until the last minute and there was a lot of confusion,” he added. However, the Scottish expat does not believe it’s the only reason for the low participation. “There

is always a degree of apathy in the international community with regards to participating in local elections,” he continued.

“For example, only 8% of the foreigners registered to vote in the 2019 elections actually did so,” he explained.

Meanwhile on the Costa Blanca it is a similar story.

Taking the town of San Fulgencio, as an example, in the 2019 municipal elections, 57% of the electorate was foreign, while this time the percentage has fallen to 38%, accounting for 1,728 non-Spaniards.

San Fulgencio councillor, Darren Parmenter, said: “Many people didn't know what to do and this is despite us publicising registration information.”

Problems

The mayor of San Miguel de Salinas, Juan de Dios meanwhile, has predicted problems on polling day with registered foreign voters now down to 11% in his municipality.

“We will see people turning out to polling stations that have voted for years who will discover for the first time they are not on the register,” he warned the Olive Press.

Despite most media groups publicising on how to register to vote, most British expats have missed out on a fundamental right to express their views on who should be running their local services.

Opinion Page 6

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Park and shop

BENIDORM has launched a campaign to attract more shoppers to the Old Town with participating businesses offering an hour of free parking at the l’Aigera car park.

Off road

WORKERS at ITV car test stations in the Valencian Community are going on indefinite strike from Friday in a dispute over wages.

Well over

A GUARDIA CIVIL radar trap clocked a motorist, 50, doing 211 km/h on the AP-7 motorway in Agost, 91 km/h above the speed limit.

Boar deal

COUNCILS in the Valencian Community can get grants of up €9,000 to pay hunting clubs to shoot wild boars which are damaging crops and walking into urban areas.

CHARGES against a former porn star have been shelved in a bizarre case in which he was accused of manslaughter after a man died at his house during a ‘toad venom ritual’. The incident took place in July 2019, at a house in Enguera when a photographer named Jose Luis Abad passed away after inhaling the venom of the reptile to create a hallucinogenic effect.

TOAD VENOM DEATH

One year later, Nacho Vidal, 49, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the death. In her ruling, a Xativa judge overseeing the case said that Abad had ‘voluntarily taken part in the ceremony’, and did so ‘having previously consumed cocaine’.

A forensic report concluded that the mix of the venom and the cocaine had a deadly effect on the victim. The judge concluded that there was not enough evidence of the involvement of Vidal, real name Ignacio Jordá, in the death of Abad for the case to go forward.

WELL DESERVED

SPAIN'S Supreme Court has upheld a 135-year prison sentence for a British teacher who created and distributed pornography of children in his care.

Ben David Rose was exposed by the Olive Press for changing his name by deed poll to become a nanny in Spain following convictions in the UK.

His devious behaviour led to the stiff jail term last year after being found guilty of molesting up to 36 children aged between four and eight years old. It came after he was able to deceptively land a job at one of Madrid’s most prestigious private schools.

No respite for Brit paedo teacher

By Alex Trelinski

The case raised serious safeguarding concerns after it emerged he had been convicted for similar crimes in the UK and placed on the sex offenders register before moving to Spain. Incredibly, his move was not properly monitored and he landed a job as an au pair in Zaragoza and then as an English teacher in several schools in the capital.

The 33-year-old had been con-

A BENIDORM parrot left its owner’s home for its daily flight but was stolen when it set down on a public street. A man, 56, wrapped the bird - worth €700 - in some clothing and drove off.

The distressed owner went to po lice and told officers that the only person that could have taken her pet was somebody that she spotted driving off in a grey-coloured van.

victed of sex crimes against children while running a summer camp near London under his previous name Ben David Lewis in 2016. In an Olive Press probe, it emerged that within days of being handed a suspended sentence and placed on the UK sex offenders register he changed his name to Ben David Rose. He applied for a new passport and fled to Spain where he quickly found work as a nanny looking after three children. Rose then moved to Madrid

Pilfered parrot

Officers accessed security cameras and saw the bird thief crouch down and steal the green-coloured parrot. They traced the van and later found the bird at the man’s home, and the pet was returned none the worse for its experience to its relieved owner.

SCHOOLS PAEDO CALL

NEWS: We exposed Rose last year

and cared for two young children before taking a job as an English teacher at a private school.

Police were tipped off to the presence of a ‘dangerous sexual predator’ working in Madrid after an investigation by police in Australia.

They established that someone in the capital was making and distributing obscene images. When police later searched his phone, they found dozens of obscene photos and videos of him with girls as young as six years inside a classroom. The Supreme Court upheld Rose’s sentence in a lower court last year.

Accidental fascist

A FAR-RIGHT fitness guru who was extradited from Spain to face terror charges in the UK told a court he is ‘horrified’ that he might have encouraged violence.

Liverpool native Kristofer Kearney, 39, has pleaded guilty to two counts of disseminating terrorist publications but denied that he shared the videos with that intention. The court case hinges on whether the Telegram posts calling for violence were ‘reckless’, as Kearney claims, or deliberate.

The court previously heard that Kearney claimed that Adolf Hitler ‘showed people the way’ and encouraged violence against black people, Jews and Muslims. Kearney was known online among far-right activists as ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’ and created a channel for exercise tips called Fascist Fitness The offences relate to two Telegram posts on January 23 and March 8 2021, which included the manifestos of Christchurch mosque killer Brenton Tarrant and Norwegian mass-murder Anders Breivik.

Kearney is expected to return to Spain to serve his sentence once the judge hands it out on June 23.

Kearney has close links to Marbella and the Costa Blanca.

BACK IN THE RING!

THE ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury is set to go another round in Mallorca after tearing up the island last summer.

The heavyweight’s declaration to return comes on the back of his jaw-dropping talk about his life at an event last August.

“He’s coming back to the same villa in Son Vida,” explains celebrity agent Gaston Montauban.

“He’s planning to come every year now, having fallen in love with the island last year,” continued the realtor, from Mallorca Deal.

Tyson, a frequent visitor to Spain, was introduced to the island by his commercial manager Spencer Brown, who regularly spends time in Mallorca.

While he has frequently trained or taken holidays in Marbella, last summer he was persuaded to spend a week at

this stunning six-bed villa, with stunning grounds and pool.

It came after his popular ‘After Party’ bash at Son Amar, when he enthralled the 500-strong audience, holding court and even singing. His manager, Brown, has become a close friend and confidant of Fury’s over the last few years.

The 734-msq villa, which sits next to Son Vida golf course and hotel, is for sale at €4.9m via www.themallorcadeal.com

Imagine they Get Back

Heard and seen

ACTRESS Amber Heard has moved from Mallorca (pictured) to Madrid, it has been claimed.

Ex-girlfriend of Hollywood star, Johnny Depp, has relocated to the capital with her two-year-old daughter Oonagh Paige. She appears to have ‘quit Hollywood’ for good for a new life in Spain in the wake of losing an infamous defamation trial to Depp last year. Heard, 37, was seen looking relaxed and happy with her child in Retiro park, while sources claim she has rented a modern house on the outskirts of the city.

The identity of Oonagh’s father has never been revealed, while she has allegedly split up from her lesbian lover Eve Barlow, a Scottish journalist, who worked for music magazine NME.

FRESH life has been breathed into a cold case involving some of the most iconic photos in rock and roll history. The remarkable set of pictures of John Lennon and Yoko Ono - including their iconic Gibraltar wedding snaps - have been missing for decades. While the Olive Press launched a special investigation in 2016 to help recover them for photographer David Nutter, the trail has since gone cold.

Cold case reopened: Fresh lead in missing John Yoko wedding photos

EXCLUSIVE

By Walter Finch

Over the course of a year we managed to establish that the stolen negatives were being offered by a shady Far Eastern cartel that claimed to own them.

However, despite receiving a copy of a contact sheet we were unable to finally secure the negatives or pin down the seller.

Now, out of the blue, we have received a mystery letter from an apparent Good Samaritan in the USA who claims she had the missing negatives in her hands in 2011.

Offered to her company by a third party, they were digitally scanned but not purchased over concerns of copyright. Having recently read our reports from 2016 she has decided she wants to return to the photographer himself and has reached out to the Olive Press to help.

“I feel real sympathy for Mr

YOUR boat has been locked away in storage, and with the sunny weather fast approaching you are itching to get her wet for the first time this season!

You get her de-winterized, antifouled and everything gets checked over thoroughly before you experience the exhilarating feeling of taking her out to your favorite spots. Even though you have taken care of all the physical aspects to make sure your rides will be pleasurable and trouble free, it is easy to forget to take care of any unforeseen and above all unhappy events that might occur whilst taking your prized possession for a spin.

Nevertheless, regardless of whether you own a dinghy, jet ski or a luxury super yacht, taking care of the body work and mechanics is only one aspect that goes towards as-

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Brits to the fore!

FORMER UK glamour

model Katie Price has been pictured in Spain in a patriotic Union Jack bikini to celebrate the Coronation.

The controversial star, formerly known as Jordan, has been eschewing the usual celebrity hotspots for a week’s holiday in Murcia.

Price, 44, posted photos on social media posing by her pool in Roldan in the depths of inland Murcia. Her distinctive figure - she aims to have ‘Britain’s biggest boobs’ - was also spotted around Altea and Albir, on the Costa Blanca this month.

It is her fourth vacation of the year despite facing bankruptcy proceedings. She was taking a break with her boyfriend Carl Woods and kids at a villa surrounded by olive groves. The Olive Press tracked down the home to Roldan, some 20km from Murcia capital and 35 km from Torrevieja - a long way from glamour hotspots of Marbella and Ibiza.

Nutter’s plight and I want to get the scans to him,” she wrote, adding she would actually like to deliver them herself.

Taken in Gibraltar in 1969 by Nutter, the incredible photos captured the infamous, whistlestop wedding of Lennon and Yoko.

The valuable negatives – estimated to be worth at least €150,000 – vanished in the 1970s after Nutter, now 84, lent them to a friend Anthony Fawcett to use in his book, John Lennon: One Day At A Time.

They were allegedly stolen during the repossession of Fawcett’s apartment ‘he claimed’. Despite two separate investigations by British police and the FBI they have never been recovered.

If you can help (or are the anonymous letter writer) pls contact jon@ theolivepress.es in strict confidence.

Notorious for her love of cosmetic surgery, Price underwent her 16th boob job procedure in December, transforming her breasts to an astounding double H cup. She was pictured posing with Benidorm legend Crissy Rock.

Looky looking up!

HEADS had to be turned and craned upwards as the passing Basketball legend Michael Jordan visited Marbella.

Ironically, a lookylooky man selling fake Nike Air Jordans was the first to notice the real NBA star, 60, was walking around after lunch at La Milla restaurant. Jordan was on holiday with his wife, the Cuban model Yvette Prieto.

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BACK FOR MORE: Tyson in Mallorca with Gaston

WEDDING: John and Yoko and our 2016 report

UNSEEN: Scan of negative sent to OP

Blue flag honours

ALICANTE has lost six of its Blue Flag beaches, after Benidorm withdrew from the scheme and others got ruled out for building works.

Two prominent Marina Alta beaches - El Arenal in Javea and Denia’s Les Deveses - have pipe works and regeneration projects in progress, which ruled them out.

Meanwhile, La Ermita beach at Santa Pola, which got a flag for the first time two years ago, loses it along with its nearby Tamarit beach.

Benidorm insisted its withdrawal from the scheme had nothing to do with losing a flag at Poniente beach last year.

The town hall decided that it would not be able to get any flags due to detailed, ongoing work at all three of its beaches.

Despite the cut, Alicante is still Spain’s top province for Blue Flags beaches, with 85 able to fly the flag this year.

Alicante has 27 more than second-placed Pontevedra, with Malaga third with 39.

By regions, the Valencian Community just pips Andalucia to top spot with 153 flags to 148.

Nice trip

AIR Nostrum, Iberia’s franchise airline for regional flights, is set to link Nice with five Spanish airports including Valencia. The connection runs from June 10 until September 3.

Royal day

A MURCIA expat had a May weekend to remember, barely a year after enlisting in the British Royal Navy. Marina Garcia, from Mazarron, was chosen to be a guard of honour in the Coronation procession, accompanying King Charles III to and from

A €2.2 billion water emergency plan is too

CRITICS have slammed a central government plan to give €2.2 billion in drought aid to farmers, insisting it is down to ‘poor planning’.

PP leader Alberto Feijoo insisted the giant emergency drought measures come after five years of ‘apathy’ and without proper planning of the country’s water resources.

Buckingham Palace. While 20-year-old Marina was born in the UK, whe was brought up in Spain.

“Although I was born in England, like my father, I came to live very soon in Mazarron and so I consider myself from here,” she told the Olive Press

See The King and I, page 6

Apathy aid

By Simon Hunter

“The countryside doesn’t want to be showered with aid but rather water,” he said at a rally in Valencia.

“The country needs its land to be productive and to sell its products,” he added. Rainfall in Spain has been

SNOW AND HAIL

SPAIN’S alarming year of weather has continued with snow falling in parts of Spain and hailstones in the Mediterranean.

Snowfall landed in Asturias, while hail came down in Catalunya and Valencia.

Many of the areas affected had not seen a single drop of rain in months.

According to state meteorological agency, Aemet, the year has been the driest since records began, with less than half the average rain registered up to May 1. Showers and storms are forecast around the country this week while temperatures will rise from Monday in the south.

27.5% lower than average for the last eight months and forecasts suggest the country will not see significant rainfalls until September.

So far, 2023 is the fifth-worst year on record in terms of the amount of water stored in the country’s reservoirs.

In Murcia, reservoir levels are down 12% on last year

People Power

ALICANTE has become one of the top 10 most populated cities in Spain. It has replaced Bilbao with 348,901 official inhabitants, compared to the Basque city’s 340,455. The most populated cities are Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia.

at 28.3%, while in Valencia they are healthier at 54%, albeit a big drop from 68% last year.

In Andalucia, reservoir levels are critical, standing at just 27.9%, some 10% down on last year and 35% down on the same month in 2013.

The Cabinet approved decree includes urgent measures to support the agriculture sector, with the drought already having caused losses to over five million hectares of cereal crops.

Subsidies

The assistance includes direct aid of more than €636 million, plus subsidies of up to 70% on insurance policies for drought.

“Our immediate action will guarantee the supply of water for this summer,” insisted Teresa Ribera, minister for environmental transition.

New Natural Park for Valencia

GIANT strides have been taken towards declaring a new natural park in Valencia.

The regional authorities have signed an order confirming the Sierra Escalona as 'one of the most important areas in terms of ecology, environment and landscape'.

The decree bans any development that ‘degrades’ the Sierra Escalona and nearby Dehesa de Campoamor during the creation process.

The new Natural park will straddle 9,003 hectares in the Orihuela, San Miguel de Salinas, and Pilar de la Horadada municipalities. It also includes the El Cristo and Pujalvarez mountains and the Pedrera reservoir. The forested area hosts a rich biodiversity including eagle owls and golden eagles, as well as endangered mammal species such as the wildcat.

The Valencian government declared the Sierra Escalona and its surroundings a 'Protected Landscape' back in 2018.

The Valencian Superior Court had already rejected several challenges from agriculture and real estate businesses appealing the plans.

little too late, insist critics

Dirty tactics

Councillors

A GIANT developer behind the controversial plan to build thousands of houses on one of the last virgin stretches of Costa Blanca coastline has been accused of intimidation and lies.

Opposition councillors in Orihuela told the Olive Press the group used ‘fake information’ and even ‘commissioned’ spies to probe any officials opposing the plans for Cala Mosca.

EXCLUSIVE

By Alberto Lejarraga

veloper ‘in every way they could’.

“This is a speculative scheme for very rich foreigners that will destroy Cala Mosca’s unique biodiversity,” said Cerdan.

NOVICE drivers will face zero tolerance for drink-driving under proposed new EU-wide driving licences. The European Commission aims to reduce the 20,000 lives lost on roads last year.

The changes focus on young drivers, reducing the driving age to 17 and easing the route for them to get their C licence to drive lorries.

Other important changes include making the licence digital to allow authorities to punish infractions committed across borders and making it easier for UK drivers to exchange their licence for an EU one.

“They kept bombarding Orihuela rep-

The town hall failed to be drawn into commenting to the Olive Press before we went to press. resentatives with letters containing fake information,” councillor Carlos Bernabe told the Olive Press this week.

“Claims like the town hall would need to pay them €200 million compensation if the development did not go ahead, which is a made up number,” added the leader of the local Cambiemos party.

“It is an urban atrocity and the saddest part is the mayor and her team have bought into that speech.”

His claims were backed by Antonio Cerdan, member of the local CLARO group that achieved the temporary suspension of the huge macro-project, granted by the European Parliament in 2007.

“Gomendio kept threatening all of us with the compensation claim and I’ve been told they even asked for reports on officials who were not in favour,” he added.

Speculative

It comes as protesters threatened to pull down a fence that the council has approved to go up around the coastal zone where Gomendio plans to build 2,200 luxury homes.

Campaigners for Salvemos Cala Mosca protested against the project near the newly raised fence this Monday. Their protest came as it emerged a strong national body has now stepped in to oppose the scheme.

Spain’s General Directorate for Roads has taken the development to court. Legal proceedings have been launched which could lead to the project being declared void.

“It would mean Gomendio would need to immediately stop any works,” insisted Bernabe

Both Bernabe and Cerdan insist PSOE leader Carolina Gracia and Ciudadanos Urban Planning Councillor Jose Aix have helped the de-

Prickly arrival

BIOPARC Valencia has a prickly new resident - a baby porcupine called Asani.

South African porcupines are the biggest species of the creature in the world, and can grow to 80cms in length and weigh up to 26 kilos. Asani - which means rebel in Swahili - is the fifth offspring of Pincho and Pincha.

FREE ART

CULTURE vultures can get the chance to visit some of the country’s best museums for free today (Thursday).

All state museums will open their doors at no charge to coincide with International Museum Day.

accuse developer of ‘spying’ and ‘lies’ as protesters vow to continue battle to prevent ‘urban atrocity’ at threatened Costa Blanca beach

Voted top expat paper in Spain

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.

OPINION

Failure in democracy

VOTING is a key right that people have died for down the years. The fundamental democratic function to keep our politicians and mayors in check comes just once every four years in Spain. So it is a tragedy that so many expats - including tens of thousands of British nationals - have lost the opportunity to cast their vote on May 28.

And this, despite a last minute agreement between the UK and Spain during the shambles of Brexit that enshrined the right. However, little known to almost everyone, Brits now would need to register to vote every four years before a mid-January cut-off date.

Sounds simple enough, but despite some small, sporadic information campaigns to remind people last year, the majority of British nationals didn’t get the message.

Registration has understandably bombed and alarmingly in some regions, such as Murcia, only 5% of foreign residents will be able to vote.

Take the resort of Manilva, where as many as 4,000 (25%) of the town hall register (padron) is made up of British expats, yet less than 800 can apparently vote.

Taxes

This is a total joke given most British expats pay taxes in this country and have often struggled to get properly registered, not to mention get TIEs and driving licences.

They have a right to vote.

So to give them just a six week window to register, stretching across Christmas, New Year and the Three Kings, was a total joke.

An extension of just one day was even more laughable!

“There were so many ridiculous hoops,” explained one longterm expat, on the Costa del Sol.

“You could register online but most people don’t have the digital certificate… and you still needed a clave (password). And then you needed a video conference.

“For someone in their 60s or older without decent Spanish and not digitally savvy it was a major uphill struggle.”

This is simply not acceptable and the Olive Press is now calling on the British government and embassy to step in and get this sorted out for 2027.

We need a proper post mortem and pressure from the embassy. The ambassador and his team need to get their act together and quicker than they did with driving licences. This is as easy as ABC. There’s been a failure in democracy. Sort it out and sort it out fast!

PUBLISHER / EDITOR

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Alberto Lejarraga alberto@theolivepress.es

Jo Chipchase jo@theolivepress.es

John Culatto

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HUNDREDS of people go missing in Spain every year. Mysteriously, when it involves a tourist or someone from the expat community, it is not uncommon for the case to go unsolved for ages – or never be solved at all.

A search for missing English rugby player and X-Factor star Levi Davis, who had been living in the Balearics, has yielded no results after six months. The high profile investigation has attracted a lot of media coverage, but it is by no means an isolated incident. Meanwhile, the mystery of Baltic expat Agnese Klavina may be closer to being solved with her body very likely to have turned up a fortnight ago in Marbella.

But the strange cases of teenager Amy Fitzpatrick and mum Lisa Brown (both of which the Olive Press investigated at length) are no nearer being cracked.

Agnese Klavina

Last seen leaving celebrity hangout Aqwa Mist nightclub in Puerto Banus with British millionaire Westley Capper, Latvian expat Agnese has not been seen since September 2014.

Privately educated ‘Wes’, who died from Covid in 2021, partly grew up in Essex and partly at posh private schools in Marbella. He and his Scouse accomplice Craig Porter (whereabouts unknown) were filmed forcing Agnese into a car on the club’s CCTV. A body language psychologist concluded that Agnese looked ‘visibly distressed’.

The following day CCTV footage showed four masked men loading a large black holdall onto a yacht belonging to Wes’s dad – John ‘Freddie’ Capper, a self-made millionaire who owns various homes in the Benahavis hills, including Madronal and Zagaleta, where he mostly lives.

Capper and Porter had claimed that they were driving Agnese to another party but she changed her mind and asked them to drop her off near her house in Monte Halcones, close to the villa of ex-England manager Flavio Capello.

WHERE

Since a body was never found, the pair were ultimately convicted in 2019 of the lesser crime of ‘coercion’ after a judge ruled that they had not unlawfully detained her.

Instead, Capper was sentenced to two years in prison and Porter got six months.

But in a sensational twist, police are now investigating the discovery of skeletal remains in a suitcase in Benahavis, just yards from Monte Halcones and within 400m of at least two Capper homes. Police have yet to rule out it is that of Agnese, but are awaiting DNA tests to confirm or refute the theory.

Lisa Brown

Nearly eight years ago, Brown, 32, an expat from Scotland, failed to collect her son (who was eight at the time) from school in Guadi-

LIFELONG memories, a sense of pride and a stiff right arm are the legacy of King Charles III’s Coronation for one Olive Press staffer, who took part in the historic event.

Never without a huge smile on his face - even after a 5am dress rehearsal finish in cold, rainy three-degree London - Matt Jones made Spanish expats proud.

The 48-year-old Olive Press sales representative, who lives in the humble, sleepy, down-to-earth Andalucian village of Alozaina, was whisked into a world of royalty, pomp and pageantry on the golden streets of Westminster.

In incredible access to the May 6 procession, he ended up lining up alongside 99 other Royal British Legion (RBL) standard bearers in Parliament Square.

Acting as a ‘guard of honour’ he needed to be carefully vetted and was flown over to the UK from Malaga ‘in secret’ a week before and put up in a five star hotel at Marble Arch.

“It was an absolutely amazing experience. It was such an honour and privilege for the RBL to be asked to be part of it,” recalls Matt, who joined the media group last year.

“We were the only non-military organisation to be asked to be part and the reaction from the crowds was brilliant. They were even clapping and cheering us throughout .

“In fact, I am still buzzing from the Matt was not the only expat involved from Spain. Mary Kemp, 57, who lives in Alicante, carried the standard for District Spain North

The Sussex lass joined Matt, who represented the south of Spain, to bear their branches’ flags up the Strand, past the Cenotaph and then take up station by Westminster Abbey.

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“We stood within five feet of the parades as royalty proceeded past - we could not have been closer,” continues Matt.

“No one had a better view! Except of course we had to

aro, near Sotogrande, on the Costa del Sol. The mother-of-one, who moved to Spain at the age of 18, had just begun a new job in Gibraltar and was said to be ‘happy’. Her partner, Dean Woods - a drug dealer, who had changed his name by deed poll to ‘Simon Corner’ - oddly vanished from the Costa del Sol just after Lisa was reported missing in November 2015.

He was arrested at Heathrow in 2018 and brought to Spain for questioning, but the case was controversially dropped. Although it was later reopened and he was extradited to the UK six months later, that inquiry also came to nothing.

Woods was sentenced soon afterwards for a completely different crime – his involvement in a €10 million cocaine ring.

The Olive Press revealed that police believe she inadvertently became involved in drug runs on yachts across the Med, but when she found out and argued with her partner he or fellow gang members killed and dumped her at sea.

Somehow Woods escaped prison while on day release in November 2022 and has been on the run since.

TheKingandI

Incredible honour as Olive Press man does his bit protecting the king on Coronation Day

keep eyes front the whole time! But we could still take in what was happening!

“The only problem was it was raining so much. Those standards weigh around 12 kilos dry. Once wet they felt like they weighed a ton. You can imagine how sore my right arm was after hours of holding the standard.

“But of course it was all worthwhile. It is such a small price to pay for being part of such an incredible moment of history; to honour your King and represent your colleagues in the RBL.”

It was certainly a long day for the 100 standard bearers. They were bussed to Whitehall at 7am where they mustered for a 100 yard procession to Horse Guards Parade.

“This was an honour in itself - a civilian organisation being permitted to be on the ground,” insists Matt, who was up at 5am finishing preparations on his uniform and boots.

From there they marched to Westminster Abbey to proudly stand with their standards, before a short rest during the Coronation service itself.

They were directed to Dunbar Court for a cup of tea and a sandwich, before returning to their posts.

Following the King’s departure, the RBL members broke ranks to head back to their hotel where they were presented with certificates

TEEN: Amy vanished in Mijas in 2008, while Levi (right) disappered in Barcelona last year

More questions than answers remain in missing person cases involving foreigners in Spain. As the body of tragic Agnese may have finally turned up, we look at five others

ARE THEY?

Lisa’s family believe Woods may have returned to Spain, where he has many friends and connections on the Costa del Sol.

On leaving court in 2020, Lisa’s brother Craig said: “We are still hoping for information, but at this moment, the judge is not bringing any charges.

“But it’s an ongoing case and if anybody knows anything, they should act on it. “It’s still very difficult for the family, everybody feels it.”

A £100,000 reward is still being offered by Lisa’s family for information on her whereabouts.

Amy Fitzpatrick

Amy, who would have celebrated her 31st birthday last month, vanished from Mijas Costa on New Year’s Day, 2008. She had been babysitting. Her aunt received a phone call in 2014 from an anonymous source who said Amy was buried at the former Hippodrome racecourse in Mijas. However, as the Olive Press recently reported, Spanish police have yet to investigate or excavate the site. She was just 15 when she disappeared on the short walk home to Riviera del Sol. The Dublin teen was

living in Spain at the time with her mum Audrey Fitzpatrick, her stepfather Dave Mahon and her brother Dean. No trace of Amy has ever been found. The family faced further tragedy when Dean was stabbed to death by his stepfather Mahon in 2013. Mahon was later convicted of manslaughter and jailed. He and Audrey remain together despite the tragedy.

Levi Davis

The case of Levi Davis has dominated headlines since he first went missing on October 29, 2022. However, a new development has sparked fresh hopes the 24-year-old could be found alive.

A close friend of Levi’s told a private investigator

hired by the family that a text sent to Levi on December 15 had been opened and read recently. The friend had written to say, ’Please come home. I love you. And miss you xx’.

And beneath the message an acknowledgement had appeared to show the text had been read.

Levi had been staying in Ibiza but travelled to Barcelona with just €40 and no change of clothes. He was picked up on CCTV leaving the Old Irish Pub near Barcelona’s La Rambla about 10pm on October 29, a few hours after arriving on the boat. Levi’s mother, Julie, received information from an alleged eyewitness that her son had ‘been sighted’ at Placa de Sant Agusti looking ‘lost and confused’ on November 14.

So far, only his passport has been found, which Mossos D’Esquadra agents discovered near the city’s port.

John Leach

John Leach, who was 65 at the time and appeared in 1990s BBC TV series Eldorado, has not been seen since leaving his home in La Cala de Mijas in 2012.

He was last seen walking alongside the A-7 next to El Sheriff bar sometime between 12.30pm and 1pm on August 21.

It is believed he may have decided to go to a wake being held in El Chaparral golf at a bar called The Hut at 4pm as he had called a few friends the day before to see if they were going.

He was carrying €10 in cash and his mobile phone but failed to answer calls made by his daughter Jessica, who was visiting Spain when he disappeared. Jessica said at the time.: “He likes his daily routine and always sticks to it so this is not normal behaviour for him.

of appreciation before sitting down to a gala dinner.

“I am so happy it went so well. It was nerve wracking leading up to it. We didn’t have long to prepare for the event, just a few days of practice. I had to learn how to march in step as I have never been in the military. In the end the adrenaline saw us through,” he explains.

“But we all helped each other and worked as a unit. Everyone looked after their colleagues’ backs. If you had a shirt not tucked in, or a tie askew, a friendly tap on the shoulder

would be given, and everything would be sorted out.”

And to cap off the longest - and possibly best - day of his life, Matt, who has lived for 13 years in Spain, previously working for the Costa del Sol News and Spectrum Radio, managed to reacquaint himself with some decent English beer.

“We were not allowed a drink in the days leading up to the coronation, but after the gala dinner it was straight down the pub.

“It was a great day to be British, and a great day to drink British beer!”

“Me and my mum are sick with worry and just hope he is found safe and returned home soon,” added Jessica. But 11 years on, nothing more has been heard about John, who was a well known and popular figure around La Cala..

He was wearing a grey polo shirt with beige or white three-quarter-length trousers and brown shoes.

If you have information on any of these cases the Olive Press on 951 273 575 or email newsdesk@ theolivepress.es

CRIME SCENE: A body and skull, which could be Agnese’s, turned up at The Crest development in Benahavis this month

OFF TO THE PUB: Straight after the gala dinner with Matt, ringed at work (above) in the morning outside Big Ben

Pic credit: Jon Clarke

Massive ‘water battery’ project will help Canaries become self-sufficient

THE Canary Islands want to fully decarbonise their economy by 2040 - 10 years before the rest of the European Union.

A big step towards that is the Salto de Chira ‘pumped hydro’ project on Gran Canaria utilising the existing Chira and Soria dams and which should come on line in four years time.

A giant water battery will be created with the help of €400 million invested by the government in the first energy storage scheme which will serve all of the Canary Islands. Water will be pumped from the Soria dam up to the Chira dam during periods when demand for energy is low.

When demand rises, water will be sent down from Chira to Soria via a tunnel over a set of turbines, thus creating energy. The concept of ‘pumped hy-

ALGAE ARRIVAL

ALICANTE University ma-

rine scientists have catalogued the first local sightings of an invasive type of sea algae.

Known as ‘Rugulopteryx okamurae’ it has been dubbed ‘Asian algae’ because it is prominent in the Asia-Pacific area.

In Spain, it first appeared on the beaches of Ceuta at the end of 2015 and has spread throughout the Alboran Sea, where experts say it has had a bad impact on native marine species, as well as on fishing and tourism.

It was detected in Alicante waters in March and in great abundance in the centre of the bay of Alicante as it grows mainly on the dead forest of ‘Posidonia oceanica’ that abounds in the area.

By Alex Trelinski

dro’ works as a battery as it can store and release power virtually on demand. Over 75% of electricity on the Canaries is generated by burning oil, and the Salto de Chira project should eliminate a large part of that, as well as improving the environment and saving a lot of money.

Canary Islands president, Angel Victor Torres, said: “Energy storage is going to be one of the key elements in the energy transition, both for its contribution to electrification and for its capacity to enable enhanced management of renewable energy, which is es-

BATTERY: The Chira dam will ‘store energy’

pecially important in non-interconnected systems such as the islands.”

Salto de Chira is expected to start generating in 2027, with up to 200MW of power at times of high demand - accounting for a third of what

IREAD with great interest the plans of a Californian-based company named Colossal to bring back animals long extinct. So it looks like the Dodo, the Woolly Mammoth and the Tasmanian Tiger could well be recreated with new technologies.

ALL WITHIN FIVE YEARS

The company, founded by entrepreneur Ben Lamm, has already raised more than $75 million to make this happen.

FACT OR PURE SCIENCE FICTION?

When you listen to him present his ideas you believe him.

New synthetic biology and genetic engineering

INVESTOR:

the islands need. It will create over 4,000 direct and indirect jobs and save €122 million each year on fossil fuels. At a stroke, Salto de Chira will increase renewable energy in the Canaries from 24% to 51%

No breeding

ONE of Spain’s main breeding grounds for Flamingos has dried up.

Normally thousands of the birds flock to the Fuente de Piedra lagoon near Malaga every year to breed.

Unfortunately, the unprecedented drought has led to them staying away, with only a small group of a few dozen flamingos holding out at a small end of the wetland, with the rest of the lake dry.

According to the Junta, the lake has received half the rainfall it normally does in the past six months.

could indeed offer far-reaching op portunities way beyond recreating the set for another Jurassic Park film.

De-extinction technologies could be used to recreate damaged ecosystems. Conservation takes on a whole new meaning when you allow your mind to run away with these end less possibilities.

Many big names have invested in this new venture. Paris Hilton, Thomas Tull (the original creator of the Jurassic Park franchise) and the Winklevoss twins (Facebook’s original investors). Many people are putting their money where his mouth is.

I can’t pretend to be clever enough to understand the science behind all this….analysing genomes, editing genes, synthesising genes, building assisted reproduction technologies, etc.

MAYBE, JUST MAYBE IT IS POSSIBLE. After all, it wasn’t that long ago we thought it impossible to put a man on the moon. For sure biodiversity can have a huge impact in the fight against climate change. One far-fetched thought crossed my mind as I reflected on all of this.

If science and technology can indeed achieve this, maybe we can breed politicians and government leaders with a moral conscience capable of enacting change!

It may be hard to imagine, but it’s seemingly true… THE DODO IS COMING BACK

Green Matters

By Martin Tye

Swiss salute!

A MAJOR global exhibition is to recognise the work of architectural giants Herzog & De Meuron, as they reach their 45th anniversary. The Royal Academy show, in London, is exploring the Swiss pair’s incredible designs, with a healthy half dozen built in Spain. These include (from top left) the Barcelona Forum, Madrid’s CaixaForum and (main) the remarkable 2007 HQ of Spanish bank, BBVA. Since 1978 the pair have grafted on 600 projects, many yet to be built, including Jerez de la Frontera’s City of Flamenco.

See Partners in Design page 4

Don’t miss the article we have prepared about it!

Super-rich buyers

ATOTAL of 8,995 foreign buyers spent €500,000 or more on Spanish property in 2022, which represented 10.1% of foreign demand, according to the latest annual report from the land registrars’ association. This is the result of a significant rise in foreign demand for highend property over the past three years. Having hovered around 5% to 6% between 2012 and 2019, it started climbing rapidly between 2020 and 2022. So the market share of wealthier buyers is growing fast.

Excluding markets of little interest

Percentage of foreign buyers spending €500,000 and up on Spanish property rose to 10% for the first time in 2022

to foreign investors (which made up less than 2% of the market between them), some 34% of properties in this category were in Andalucia, followed by the Balearics (24%) and Catalunya (18%).

In Andalucia 42% of buyers spending €500,000 or more came from outside the EU, including the UK, whilst in the Balearics, where German buyers dominate the foreign

market, the proportion fell to just 24%. Buyers from outside the EU spending €500,000 of their own funds on Spanish property meet the investment criteria for applying for a Spanish Golden Visa.

Super-rich & superprime in Spain

This increase in the number of foreigners investing big sums of money comes at a time when Spain is firmly on the radar of super-rich global investors. According to the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2023, Spain is the top destination for high-net-worth Europeans purchasing a new home, and the third destination for wealthy buyers from the Americas. Globally, Spain is in fourth place

3%

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behind the US, UK, and Australia, and ahead of France in fifth place. However, buyers will find a scarcity of product for sale in some segments at the very high-end, including the super-prime serviced-apartment segment that tends to appeal to so-called ultra-high-net-worth individuals, (or UHNWI for short).

As I found out when researching an article on super-prime serviced apartments in Spain compared to the UK, there is very little left on the market, and almost all of it is in Barcelona and Madrid.

“We are down to our last remaining full-floor apartment,” says David Rolt, Director of Francesc Macià 10 in Barcelona, the first project in this segment launched in Spain. “There is clearly international demand at the very high-end, but the pipeline of super-prime serviced-apart-

ments in Barcelona has nothing new coming in, so it won’t be long before high-end buyers can’t find what they are used to in cities like London and New York.”

The very high-end of the market in Spain, where buyers spend as much as €45 million on an apartment, is a tiny fraction of the segment of buyers spending €500,000 or more, but the growing market-share of wealthy foreign buyers is a reality that is captured by the latest market report by the land registrars, and supported by the Knight Frank report.

The wealthy tend to survive times of economic turbulence better than most, so it will be interesting to see if this growing appetite for Spanish property amongst wealthy foreign investors translates into another increase in market share in 2023.

Majestic south-facing Spanish villa in Costa Nova with five bedrooms, private pool, carport, garage and wonderful spacious naya. The villa was always used as a family home, offering space for more than 10 people.

An extraordinary blend of modern and Mediterranean style built with an outstanding light concept to the newest lighting system available to make this 700 m2 luxury villa shine and stand out like not seen anywhere else.

This spacious townhouse is walking distance of all facilities and is spread over four floors. It offers the ability to rent as separate units and offers commercial space, making it an ideal investment.

Rental robbery

SPANISH workers spent an average of 43% of their salary on rent in 2022.

This is a 3% increase on 2021 and 17% higher than a decade ago, according to a Fotocasa study.

It also came during a year when wages decreased overall by 0.7%.

According to the report rent prices are the highest ever seen in the country.

And it is at its worst in the Baleares and Catalunya where people spend an alarming 58% of their earnings on rentals.

Valencia meanwhile sits at 42% and Andalucia at 38%.

Murcia is the third cheapest region where residents spend just 32% of their salary on rent.

Rental limits

A NEW housing law controlling rents and putting new limits on evictions has been passed.

The Senate now needs to ratify the bill that protects tenants from abusive rent rises, introducing a limit of 3% during 2024.

Among other changes, tenants will no longer have to pay an estate agent a fee when they sign a new contract, and only the landlord must pay.

Meanwhile large landlords will be considered as having five properties, down from 10, while eviction dates must be communicated to tenants in advance.

Tie-break victory

Tennisstar’sBalearicestatefinallysold aftertwodecadesof legalwranglings

IT was a mammoth five-setter that went down to one of the longest tie-breakers in Mallorcan history. But, finally, after 17 years on the market, the rustic mansion of German tennis star Boris Becker has been sold. In one of the longest, most turbulent chapters in Spanish property sales, a German business man has acquired the 13-bedroom estate, near Arta.

Even local star

Rafa Nadal couldn’t have withstood the two decade onslaught Becker has taken over the property, that sits in 30 hectares and counts on, naturally, a tennis court, gym and stables.

According to a German newspaper the anonymous buyer got the property, Finca Son Coll, in an extreme

NEARLY 100 empty properties are being seized from their owners in Catalunya. So far 70 flats are being expropriated from large property owners in a bid to create more council housing.

The apartments - located around the region, from Tarragona to Vic - will be converted to social housing in areas of high residential demand.

It comes after a law was passed by the Catalan Parliament in 2022 allowing lo-

By Jon Clarke & Alex Trelinski

ly good deal given its poor state or repair.

The 2,900msq property was effectively almost a ruin and had been squatted for a number of years by a group of German hippies. The new owner told Bild am Sonntag the property needed a ‘lot of work on it’.

“We filled up 150 rubbish bins when we bought the house,” he revealed.

The former Wimbledon star, who was jailed by a UK court over his bankruptcy issues last year, bought Son Coll in But it wasn’t long before he

got into trouble when in 2003 the Mallorca High Court ordered him to knock down a large part of it, which he failed to do, leading to a €500,000 fine.

Towel

Then throwing in the towel, he put it on the market for an initial €19m that quickly dropped to €15m by 2011. Eventually, as Becker’s debts mounted up a court ordered it to a public auction, valued at €8.5m, in 2012, with the star finally managing to come to an agreement with his creditors.

However, just two years later, with the property then

valued at just €7.2m, it was ordered once again to be auctioned over a €100,000 debt to his administrative and security team. At the final hour, Becker got a stay of execution and put the property back on the market for €7m. However, things went from bad to worse and in 2017 he was declared bankrupt in London and eventually sent to prison in 2022.

Insolvent

With the star declared insolvent a British private bank, Arbuthnot Latham, took over the rundown estate in 2019 and put it up for sale.

SEIZED FOR THE NEEDY

cal authorities to expropriate a home if it remained unoccupied for more than two years.

Initially owners are being allowed to take action and rent out their homes, or to come up with a good excuse.

Letters to the owners are going out this month and if no ‘acceptable’ answer is

given, they will be expropriated.

The regional government has set aside €5 million to buy an initial 50 to 70 flats at a fair rate.

“We are doing everything we can to help families in a vulnerable situation,” explained regional councillor Juli Fernandez Olivares.

But not before a group of squatters had moved in and, despite claims, allowed it to fall apart over a two year period. The new property owner - described as a young entrepreneur - has spent some time redesigning the finca, which he plans to move into this summer.

MAY

Mortgage move

THE government has approved a new measure to help young people buy their first home.

The ICO (Spain's Official Credit Institute) will act as a guarantor for up to 20% of a mortgage taken out by those aged 35 or under and families with children, only if the annual income is less than €37,800.

The €37,800 limit on income will double if the property is bought between two people and they ask for a joint mortgage.

For those families with children under 18, there will be no age restrictions when asking the ICO to be a guarantor.

A government minister said the move was aimed at improving access to housing and could help up to 50,000 families.

Need more brickies

THERE is a major shortage of builders for the Spanish construction industry.

The average age of brickies is 50 and only 9% are under 30, compared to 27% who are over 50, revealed the Labour Construction Foundation (FLC).

And to make matters worse it is predicted that a third of the workforce will retire over the next 15 years, with nowhere near enough young builders to replace them.

“There is a lack of interest from youngsters,” explained a spokeswoman for Malaga’s Association of Builders and Promoters.

“They perceive it as unstable, physically tiring and even dangerous work,” she added.

This is despite a major modernisation of the industry over the last decade and the fact that builders rarely work at weekends and usually knock off at 3pm on a Friday.

The labour shortage is particularly acute for bricklayers, but also electricians, plumbers and plasterers.

NEWOWNERS:Becker’sMallorcanestatehasfinallybeensoldafter 17 years on the market

Partners in Design

As landmark London exhibition celebrates the 45th anniversary of global architects Herzog & de Meuron, Nadia McDonald takes a look at five mind-blowing Spanish designs

THEY have been working together since 1978 and grafted on a staggering 600 projects in 40 countries around the world. So it’s perhaps not surprising that a key British institution has chosen to honour the work of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

In a much anticipated show, London’s Royal Academy will present a detailed exhibition on 45 years of work of Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron.

They’ve reimagined the nature of buildings, from houses to hospitals. And they’ve designed projects that have transformed cities, such as the Tate Modern, in London, Elbphilharmonie, in Hamburg, and M+ in Hong Kong.

The architectural wizards, based out of Basel, are among the most respected design duo of all time and fortunately Spain has been graced with their ‘architectural art’ in no less than five jaw-dropping feats. Here, we present them:

CaixaForum Madrid

MADRID’S CaixaForum is an encounter of historical eras, blending the city’s industrial past with modern clean lines. The Swiss maestros were tasked with the building of a cultural space that would replace an old fire damaged power station. Given the protected status of the building, its industrial age façades had to be retained. So the team cleverly gutted the power station and elevated it above ground level, in what can only be described as an optical illusion.

The result is an incredible open air space held up by a central metal structure allowing visitors to enjoy some sha de in an open air space next to Madrid’s famous Paseo del Prado.

Above, the historical body is crowned with brick coloured iron panels. Meanwhile, next to the forum, that also descends underground, is a wall of cascading foliage bringing together nature, history and modernism in one seamless sweep.

TEA, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes

Art is at the heart of the firm’s practice and the pair have designed multiple galleries and museums during their impressive tenure, including the Laban and Tate in London.

In Tenerife they headed up the design team for the Espacio de las Artes, a low lying and jagged dark concrete behemoth which from the outside appears windowless and imposing.

Walking through its courtyard, glass façades flood the building with light and on their opposing walls a series of morse code-like slits fragment the light in a scintillating dance as it bounces off the glossy flooring.

New Headquarters for BBVA

THE headquarters of Spain’s second largest bank, BBVA, was designed by the renowned pair back in 2007 and eventually got dubbed ‘the sail’. The BBVA City has a plaza in the middle from which the large reflective high rise emerges. The main attraction is its looming centrepiece which takes the form of a misshapen oval and is contrastingly surroun-

ded by the straight lines of three-storey office buildings. Windows have brise-soleils each uniquely positioned to allow light into the buildings while providing shade and privacy, the white panels against the reflective glass resemble a sailing regatta, which juxtaposes the business dealings of its internal workings.

Forum 2004 Building and Plaza

A section of Barcelona’s cityscape that was once known as ‘no-man’s land’ was completely revitalised by the construction of the standout Forum of Cultures building. Its apparent gravity defying, material blending structure is shaped as an equilateral triangle. Deceptively, the colossal building appears to hover some 25 metres above the ground.

The pair opted to use a deep blue rough concrete as the predominant material, an ode to the coastal city, taking inspiration from coral reefs. Breaking up the

concrete mass are shard-like windows that cut through the prism. Underneath, visitors can look up to wavy mirrors that emulate a sunlit sea.

If you are buying property in Spain or have problems with a property you already own, a professional structural survey can help identify and record defects whilst suggesting remedial solutions and cost implications.

Whether its an old town house, apartment or luxury villa every property purchase represents a considerable investment and deserves a close inspection for defects such as damp, termites, subsidence etc. Specialist structural assessment of problem retaining walls and swimming pools is also undertaken.

Fast turnaround video survey options now available.

FREE buyers guide available via website. Initial telephone and email advice is FREE.

NOT limited to buildings, the company was chosen to design Burgos’s boulevard which runs along a disused railroad.

Realising the inevitable expansion of the city, the architects wanted to create a space that was timeless, practical, green and unique.

The winding street gives priority to pedestrians incorporating wide footpaths dotted with central-park style benches and accessorised by shrubbery.

Bus stops along the street resemble

Burgos Bulevar

grounded spaceships while streetlights drop like dew from a crisscross of overhead power lines.

IS DOING NOTHING ABOUT YOUR EXPOSURE TO UK INHERITANCE TAX AN ERROR OF JUDGEMENT?

In this article we examine the financial consequences of not addressing your exposure to UK inheritance tax.

INHERITANCE TAX REVENUES RISING SHARPLY

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collected an extra £729M in inheritance tax receipts for the financial year 2021/22 an increase of 14% from the previous year raising £6.1 billion in revenue.

The UK Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that for the financial year 2022/23 inheritance tax receipts will raise £6.7 billion in tax revenues.

The OFBR has also predicted inheritance tax receipts will increase by a further 24% to £8.3 billion by 2026.

The average UK inheritance tax liability per estate continues to rise sharply from £209,000 in 2019/20 to an estimated £266,000 by 2022/23.

A strong rise in asset values (including UK house prices) alongside the UK Government’s decision to freeze the level at which estates are exempt from IHT has dragged more people into the UK IHT tax net.

DEEMED DOMICILE

As a result of recent changes to UK ‘deemed domicile’ provisions in April 2017 the conditions for those claiming non-domicile status have been tightened. Once you have passed away, the burden of proof for any non-domiciled claims falls on your heirs.

RE-TRIGGERING UK DOMICILE

You may have lived abroad for many years but your circumstances can change. It’s not uncommon for British nationals to return home if the spouse passes away or if they require medical treatment. If you return to the UK for more than a year your domicile of origin is reinstated and you become liable to UK IHT.

IT’S A VOLUNTARY TAX – WHAT IS STOPPING YOU?

Whilst HMRC is always looking at ways of increasing tax revenues; inheritance tax is a ‘voluntary tax.’ The earlier that you plan the more options you will have available to protect your estate from UK IHT; procrastinating will only tighten the taxman’s grip on your hard-earned money.

Many tax payers choose to do nothing –whether it is inertia or not feeling enough pain – is anyone’s guess. However, ignoring the problem doesn’t make the pain go away.

Doing nothing about UK Inheritance Tax deprives your loved ones from enjoying the fruits of your hard labour. You are basically gifting money to the UK Government rather than to your beneficiaries – why would a rational person not take steps to reduce their tax exposure?

We are in the Murcia/Costa Blanca area from 15th until 19th May 2023 and available for meetings throughout the area from Torrevieja to Murcia.

please

IN an age of international style, global trends, and ‘one-size-fits-all’ interiors how can you create a stunningly stylish Iberian-flavoured home? How do you distinguish Calvia or Cadiz from California?

The simple answer is to shop local and enjoy all the associated environmental and cost benefits this brings.

Most notable among Spanish handicrafts are our textiles and ceramics, so let’s hit the road, and drop in on a couple of areas with the richest heritage of artisanal crafts.

Textiles

Our first stop is in the Alpujarra, on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, where towns like Bubion and Capilera are a Mecca for textile-lovers.

Here you will find Hilacar, which still makes traditional fabrics (and offers weaving workshops) using traditional methods. Check its website.

Historically tejido Alpujarreño is most familiar as ‘cortinas de calle’ (or street curtains), but Alpujarreño textiles are

GO LOCAL

When it comes to textiles and ceramics, the Iberian Peninsula has a wealth of amazing producers, writes Julia Begbie

inexpensive and finding new design markets.

Where I live in Gaucin, the excellent local restaurant Platero & Co has crafted an excellent interior scheme around Hilacar fabrics (curtains, room dividers, and seat cushions), combining these with hessian and local natural materials for a distinctive solution that feels just right in our mountain village.

Meanwhile in Madrid, Eduardo Rodriguez Turel, proprietor of Eturel, showcases Alpujarreño fabrics alongside hessian and Canary Island stripes in an explosion of colourful contemporary chic. See his online shop for design and colour inspiration, and for high quality yet relatively inexpensive finished products, such as tablecloths, cushions, bags, and storage baskets.

Historically, the Iberian Peninsula has Berber shepherds to thank for the wool that feeds their mills; the Spanish town of Grazalema grew rich on the wool trade, and iconic Grazalema blankets sit well in traditional and contemporary interiors.

Visit Mantas de Grazalema to indulge a taste for the monochromatic. Colour lovers meanwhile, should investigate the premium mohair blankets so beloved of Spanish children; the iconic brand Ezcaray – based in La Rioja and approaching its centenary celebrations - is world-famous for its sumptuous, soft and fluffy, jewel-coloured investment pieces, woven from the hair of Angora goats (above).

Over the border

Crossing the border into Portugal, our next

stop is Reguengos de Monsaraz, another hotspot of textile production and home to Fabricaal, a business combining tradition with bold contemporary vision. Fabricaal’s range includes fantastic rugs, and blankets, and the artefacts (bags, cushions, and stools) they create from the product of their looms.

Ceramics

The Iberian Peninsula is also justly famous for heritage ceramics and tiles in colours and patterns to give your home instant regional recognition and personality.

In Spain, the town of Nijar is to ceramics what Bubion is to textiles. Set the satnav for Avenida Federico García Lorca and browse stalls teetering with stacked pots and colourful plates. Chat to seventh-generation potters like Lorenzo Lores, the current custodian of family business Alfareria Angel y Loli

This family business has been operating since 1755, and Lorenzo still works with the most traditional brown, yellow, green, and blue slips and glazes (manganese, iron, copper, and cobalt, since you ask).

In Portugal, you might want to check out some of the excellent ceramics around the Sintra area.

Take our modernist new-build home in Gaucín, we have introduced contemporary Iberian ceramics to give a sense of location.

Our choice is Casa Cubista, a Portuguese brand that overlays simple designs on traditional base materials, and mixes well with old-style ceramics collected in nearby Morocco.

CHECKLIST:

HILACAR

www.jarapahilacar.com

PLATERO Y CO

www.platero-gaucin.com/es/

ETUREL

www.eturel.com

FABRICAAL

www.fabricaal.com/en/

MANTAS DE GRAZALEMA

www.mantasdegrazalema.com

EZCARAY

www.mantasezcaray.com

ALFARERIA ANGEL Y LOLI

www.instagram.com/alfarangelyloli

CASA CUBISTA

www.casacubista.com

From a small sitting room to the hottest new restaurant, we will assist in creating your vision.

With over a decade of experience, based between Barcelona and London.

Curating a bespoke design plan using the best local and international artisans.

References and testimonials available.

hello@sedesigns.studio

www.sedesigns.studio

WhatsApp: (+44) 7775 782 418

WARM AND WONDERFUL: Grazalema blankets are multi-purpose items

BEST OF SPAIN: Shops include Casa Cubista, Alfareria Angel y Loli and Eturel

Se-designing

SHE may have come from a land down under, but Sara Eski is right on the cutting edge of modern design in Europe. Based out of Barcelona and London, her company SE Designs offers a bespoke, great value service to help you renovate, upgrade or totally rebuild any space you want. Drawing inspiration from her surroundings her original ren-

distinct lifestyles and personalities of her individual clients. Both relaxed and sophisticated, her approach focuses on curating furniture and decor that elicit an emotional response.

Through a well worn process of online consultancy via normal or zoom calls, she guarantees to help clients through the complex and frequently fraught interior design process. Here, in the first of three example renders with mood boards, she offers up a few suggestions for a contemporary living room.

She explains: “Texture and feeling are something embedded within my design process, often in the form of an object or piece of furniture that ignites my creative flow, lining the foundation of the concept.

“In this example, I wanted to design a space that represented being present. A space that can be silent but also filled with personality, a space you get lost in or escape to.

“Through use of tonal textures, I have created interest within the smallest of details, allowing your eyes to wonder, but not tire.

“From the cloud-like movement cascading up the walls, to organic shapes within the furniture, the two elements marry harmoniously.”

Visit

free power!

MiSolar answer: How to pay €0 bills with solar panels

MANY people are asking us if it is really possible to get an electricity bill of €0? And the answer is YES, but we believe it is very important to explain the

WHAT’S A SOLAR FEED-IN TARIFF?

A new law on self-consumption of solar energy was published on Apri 5, 2019 in Spain’s national bulletin.

THE NEW RULE WAS THIS:

Excess kWh you send into the national grid should accumulate as credit and be discounted from your electricity bill at the end of the month. You should be ‘paid’ for the electricity you produce but don’t consume.

This is called a ‘feed-in tariff’ and the two most important figures in a contract are:

1. The price you pay for energy from the grid (in 2022 this reached a high of €0.40 per kWh)

2. The price you are ‘paid’ for energy given to the grid (between €0.05 – €0.18 per kWh) NOTE – with a feed-in tariff you still pay a standing charge that covers contract costs, service costs and taxes.

Every month the count starts all over again and if you sell more than you use, that extra is kept by the electricity company MiSolar is used to installing solar panel systems that cut a client’s electricity bill down to only the fixed charge of €15-40 per month by offering the best feed-in tariffs on the market. However, the complaint against feed-in tariffs is this: you can never get your bills to €0. But there is a new deal with which we can bring the bill down to almost €0.

different steps that are necessary to get there. And it doesn’t mean a bigger financial investment. Read on and we’ll explain.

Solar Panels Systems

THE DEAL IS CALLED A ‘VIRTUAL BATTERY’

But what’s a virtual battery in Spain? How do they work?

Here are three of the most important features:

1. A better rate – suppliers credit the kWh you export to the grid with the best possible price.

2. No standing charges – your excess energy can cut the standing charges down to €0

3. Excess energy is saved in a ‘wallet’ as credit – if you reduce your electricity bill to €0 in a month by using that credit, then any extra credit is saved in your account and will be used in the following months.

VIRTUAL BATTERIES ARE GAME-CHANGING

● They mean you can design a system that stores up credit in your wallet which you will use to pay future bills.

● It means thousands of homeowners who don’t live full-time in Spain can get a cost-effective solar panel system.

● If you live here full-time, then the rightsize system can get your bills down to €0 or close to €0.

● We’ve been watching the virtual battery closely and are now offering it to solar panel clients in Spain.

But we only work with trusted partners that pay a fair rate.You might be wondering if it’s worth installing solar panels on your property in Spain.

If you’ve looked at feed-in tariffs you might have felt cheated that you’re credited less than half the price you’re charged for energy. But paying close to €0 each year for electricity is now a reality thanks to the virtual battery. If you want us to help you with the switch to the virtual battery, we can do it for you. We hope this article helps you to understand better the amazing world of solar panels. So, what next? If you’re interested in going solar after reading this article, we have a special offer for OLIVE PRESS readers like you. Simply use the coupon code ‘OLIVE 10’ when you contact us for a solar consultation and you’ll receive a free survey of your property’s solar potential, plus a direct discount of €250 off your solar installation. This offer is available for a limited time, so don’t wait to make the switch to solar and start enjoying the benefits of clean energy for your home or business.

Solar Panels Systems

chair by Gubi 3. Kastrup (Closed on Sunday Edit) Rug by Henzel Studio 4. Ming's Heart Armchair by Poltrona Frau 5. Manon floor lamp by Heaps & Woods 6. Chimera side table's by Arketipo 7. Xtabay by Impotsible ceramics

As well as keeping a close eye on Spain, Sara Eski (left) offers up the most original, contemporary designs from around the world

BILL: Our clients receive monthly reports clearly showing their savings

SOLE AGENCY

@TheHub - Avda de Libertad 19, Local 5, 03730 - Jávea

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The villa is surrounded by stunning immaculate landscaped garden with sweeping lawn areas surrounding the pool and terraces that conveniently lead directly from the same level living area and covered terraces.

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Old faces

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Spain have unearthed five 5th-century stone reliefs of human faces belonging to the ancient Tartessian culture of the 8th–4th centuries B.C.

The two most complete depict women wearing jewellery and researchers believe they could have been major figures in society, with one of the figures possibly representing a warrior.

The Tartessos civilization inhabited the southern Iberian Peninsula and is only known from archaeological discoveries.

The discovery was made at the Iron Age site of Casas del Turuñuelo in Badajoz province in western Spain which comprises of a large, twofloor building made of adobe walls on stone foundations.

Roman way of death

New exhibition tells the lives of gladiators, with help from their tombstones

SLAVES, prisoners of war, condemned criminals or even free men who voluntarily chose the job… there was no one route to becoming a gladiator in Roman times. But one thing was commondeath was never far away. Now a new exhibition in Burgos is telling the stories of some of these warriors through artefacts used to commemorate them.

BLUES FUN

THE annual Benicassim Blues Festival, taking place from June 2-4, will animate the streets of the coastal retreat for a weekend of live music, workshops, masterclasses, and children’s activities.

Head off to the vermouth and blues masterclass, or combine the soulful sounds of the Spanish and international blues scene with an al fresco paella.

Music will play in open-air venues across the town and the whole festival is free to attend.

Artists will include soul, hip-hop and funk band The Main Squeeze, jump-blues and rockabilly band Micky & The Buzz and award-winning blues artist Alice Armstro.

By Simon Hunter

The Museum of Human Evolution in the northern Castilla y Leon region has borrowed six funerary ‘steles’ from Cordoba’s Archeology Museum for the show, which is called ‘Death in the arena. Gladiators of Cordoba’.

The steles – made from slabs of limestone or marble – are inscribed with the life stories of the dead gladiators, and were once located in a necropolis in Cordoba.

The site was discovered in the 1930s when the local council in Cordoba decided to build a new neighbourhood. It was then that workers found a spectacular underground tomb, and some years later proper excavation work located 15 burial sites (five of them with two occupants) for a total of 20 gladiators.

The exhibition also features re-

productions of the equipment that these gladiators used, including shields, helmets, daggers and armour. The items on display date from the first and second centuries A.D. but the exhibition explains the birth of the profession of gladiator from as far back as the fourth century B.C., when combat would honour someone’s memory. The display would later become the preferred public spectacle in the times of the Roman empire, according to the museum. The exhibition will run until autumn and is free to enter. Guided tours are also available at no charge.

Visit www.museoevolucionhumana.com for more info

EPITAPHS: On a Gladiator life and (top) a helmet

LA CULTURA

Freed with a brushstroke

From slave to grand master: Jack Gaioni recalls a remarkable, little known chapter in Spanish art history involving Velázquez & Pareja

DIEGO Velázquez (1599-1660) needs no introduction. Perhaps the best-known painter in Spain’s Golden Age, Velázquez’s paintings became the paragon of excellence for the great Spanish realist and impressionist painters that followed.(think: Pablo

Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali, etc.). Recently, Velázquez has been on the minds of art historians and museum curators for reasons you might not expect. Of late, on-going discussions by those in the art community argue that Velázquez’s legacy has brought a new dimension to the world of art. Allow me to explain…

Early in his career, Velázquez had a mod-

est, somewhat regional, reputation as a painter. That changed when the Flemish great Peter Paul Rubens, who while visiting Madrid, recognised the young man’s potential. He encouraged Diego to travel to Italy to paint, study and learn from the great masters. In 1629 he left Malaga for Genoa, entrusted by King Philip to continue to paint but also to procure paintings and sculptures for the royal palaces. Traveling with him was a personal entourage of other artists, assistants, and - wat for it - a Morisco slave named Juan de Pareja. Even after the expulsion of Moors (1492), Spain remained a muti-racial and highly stratified society but artists were known to have slaves in their workshops.

Carnegie Corporation purchased a private art collection from a Puerto Rican man of mixedrace named Arturo Schomburg.

Schomburg, a historian, writer, and activist, often collected ‘slave narratives’ - evidence of what he called ‘hidden black achievement’.

Known as part of an intellectual revival of African arts called the Harlem Renaissance Movement, the Schomburg/Carnegie collection is housed today in the New York Public Library. Schomburg however was not finished with his efforts. Using the proceeds from his sale to the Carnegie Corporation, he traveled to Spain to retrieve many of the works of Juan de Pareja.

At the time of this writing, much of Schomburg’s collection pertaining to the works of Pareja is on display at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Legal Eagle

With Victoria Wright KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Before signing any legally binding document, make sure you know what it is

HAVE you been asked to sign something by your landlord, community or even the campsite owner but you are not sure if you should?

If you live on a campsite all year round or indeed park your van there permanently, even if you travel back and forth, it is important to know the laws regarding ‘permanent structures on your plot’.

You should also know the important differences between a residential and tourist campsite and what rights you have against extortionate electric sub-contracting and which specific infrastructure and facilities should be provided to you.

If you live in an apartment or on an urbanisation with a community, know what your options are regarding such things as barking dogs, noisy neighbours, satellite dishes and internet connections.

It can also be very daunting if you do not speak the language

Make sure you have a voice and a vote at community meetings (if you are the owner of the property), on all the matters that may affect you, like adding extensions, closing in terraces and much more.

And when it comes to negotiations with landlords, deposit returns, faulty appliances, contract renewals, etc, know what you are signing and what you need to sign!

Moving to a different country is tempting, in particular Spain, but it can also be very daunting especially if you do not speak the language or are not sure of the laws.

FOR ANY HELP AND ADVICE ON LEGAL ISSUES, YOU CAN CONTACT ME AT: ALBA CONSULTAS - LEGAL ADVISERS (+34) 96 561 5061 / +34 692 386 293

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To some extent, Velázquez’s subject matter while in Rome reflected this diversity. With his brilliant use of a loose (almost impressionistic) style of brushwork, vivid colors, shading, and light, Velazquez brought to life a certain ‘vitality’ to darker-skinned subjects.

During his stay in Rome, Velázquez’s painting of his slave, The Portrait of Juan de Pareja was exhibited at the Pantheon (1650) where it not only was popularly received, it ‘electrified the city of Rome’.

As one biographer noted: “The Portrait of Juan de Pare ja was widely applauded by all the painters from different countries who said the other pictures were ‘art’ but Velázquez’s portrait was ‘truth’. Very little is known of Juan de Pareja’s background. He was born around 1609 in Antequera and came to Velazquez either by purchase, gift, or inheritance. Pareja was believed to be born of an African slave and white Spaniard. Early on, as a member of Velazquez’s household and workshop, he demonstrated knowledge that went beyond merely mixing paints, cleaning brushes and setting up easels.

‘Manumission’

Rather, he evolved into not only a dedicated apprentice but as an emulator of the masters around him - especially in his time in Rome.

There he developed stylistically into an artist in his own right and was prolific in his painting. One critic described his bold brushwork as ‘more of a sign of courage rather than confidence’. Diego Velazquez would ultimately free him by ‘manumission’ or formal emancipation from slavery.

Juan de Pareja had entered Rome an enslaved Morisco but left a free man with an accomplished reputation. Flash forward nearly 300 years to the world of art in New York City. In 1926, The

The exhibition offers an unprecedented look at the life and times and artistic achievements of Juan de Pareja. The Met hopes to better position the voices of enslaved people through art.

The presentation examines ways in which ‘enslaved art’ and a multiracial society are linked to Spain’s Golden Age.

The infamous Portrait of Juan de Pareja is contextualized by the presence of much of Pareja’s works. Even the original historical document which ‘freed’ Velasquez’s dedicated assistant is on display.

These works, combined with Velazquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja serve as a thread connecting 17th Century Art with 20th Century Art.

DID YOU KNOW?

● I, Juan de Pareja is an award -winning novel by Amer- ican writer Elizabeth Borton de Treviño. In 1966 the fictionalized novel won the prestigious Newbery Med- al for excellence in children’s literature.

● “Decolonization of art”-- the process of freeing insti- tutions (e.g., museums, exhibitions, etc.) from the cultural and social effects of Euro-colonial art, is re- ceiving increased attention. Many museums are is- suing statements of solidarity hoping to offer greater access to the art of colonized people. For a fasci- nating video on this subject matter with associate curator at The Met , Maia Jessup Nuku, go to: https// YouTube/SBfGRVFFczk.

● Not all Pareja’s work is presently in New York. His classic The Calling of Saint Matthew can be viewed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. At the Museu de Belles Arts in Valencia, the Portrait of the Architect José Ratés Dalmau can be viewed.

● The Met’s Exhibit in New York City runs until July 16, 2023.

SELF PORTRAIT: Pareja (far left) and, above, his pic by Velázquez

CELESTIAL: Bautismo, while (below) Portrait of the Architect José Ratés

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BUSINESS bosses and trade unions have agreed to increase workers’ wages by 4%.

Both sides have reached the deal known as the Agreement on Employment and Collective Negotiations (AENC) after months of bargaining in the context of the current inflation.

The Executive Board of the Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE) unanimously approved the agreement and will ask Spanish

Pay boost

businesses to apply it.

It has been decided that salaries ought to rise this year, with further 3% boosts in 2024 and 2025. And further 1% increments could be implemented each year if inflation continues to grow.

Data drought

A PLANNED data centre that will serve Facebook and Instagram owner Meta will need 660 million litres of water a year to run in a drought-stricken area.

The structure is due to be built in the Toledo municipality of Talavera de la Reina.

The project was given approval as a Project of Singular Interest (PSI) by the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha. This means that the project will be fast-tracked given the eco-

Meta’s planned data centre will require ‘660 million litres of water a year’ in drought stricken area

By Simon Hunter

nomic impact it will have on the region.

But among the plans from the company are a requirement for 200 million litres of water a year for the data centre itself,

PROFIT SURGE

ENERGY company Endesa has announced a 76% surge in net profit for the first quarter of the year, defying the effects of Spain's windfall tax.

The company, owned by Italian energy titan Enel, revealed that it had trousered a staggering €594 million from January to March, despite paying a €208 million windfall tax in the first quarter.

Spain's energy firms have benefited from soaring gas prices but Endesa is still challenging in the High Court the legality of the temporary 1.2% levy on utilities' sales.

2022 SPANISH INCOME TAX, RATES AND OBLIGATIONS

Calling all Spanish tax residents!

THE filing period for personal income tax for 2022 started in April and will last until June 30.

The obligation to declare is for tax residents who, according to the law, spend more than 183 days during the calendar year in Spanish territory.

Not all residents however are obliged to file an income tax return.

Only those who receive an income of more than €22,000 per year if they receive it from a single employer, and €14,000 if they have two or more employers.

In addition, individuals who receive an income from interest, dividends or rental income,

etc. may also be subject to the obligation to declare even if no other income is received.

This tax is proportional and is levied according to the principle of economic tax capacity, which is constitutionally recognised in article 31 of the Spanish constitution. It basically means that those who earn more pay more. For income obtained from salaries and pensions the general tax scale must be applied and the tax rate varies from a minimum of 19% for the lowest incomes to 47% for incomes exceeding €300,000. Other income such as dividends, interest, real estate income or capital gains must be declared in the

savings section and these rates tend to be significantly lower than the general scale.

It should also be noted that all taxpayers, depending on age and family circumstances, are entitled to family and personal allowances to reduce the amount payable.

If you have any queries regarding the filing of your income tax return, we recommend that you contact Pedro from My Lawyer in Spain who will be happy to advise and assist you.

for more general legal advice in Spain

Elevated access

BENIDORM council wants to install a network of lifts to improve access to the Tossal de La Cala viewpoint.

and then another 440 million for the rest of the infrastructure on the site.

Claims that the Meta site is in an ‘area in danger of drought’, and that it would require increased consumption from the River Tajo (Tagus) basin.

But the regional premier of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page of the Socialist Party, said that his government would not allow for a lack of water to ‘endanger the arrival of companies’.

Garcia-Page is one of the many politicians running at the upcoming regional and local elections that will be held across Spain on May 28.

Barring any obstacles, the work to build the Meta Data Center Campus will begin at the end of this year.

It will occupy a 125-hectare plot of land in an industrial park.

Access up the 889 metre-long steep path has always been a major concern with people suffering from mobility issues, unless they have transportation like a special scooter.

The elevator plan is part of a €3 million project submission sent to the Ministry of Tourism to improve the popular visitor site.

The proposed solution to improve access to La Cala is a network of four elevators linked by walkways starting from the Paseo de los Tamarindos at the end of Poniente beach and finishing where the upper area starts at the Plaza de la Ermita Virgen del Mar. The project would also include the remodeling of the 889 metre-long path to the top, with precast concrete steps, and changing the paving to stamped concrete and tactile tiles, which are far easier for people with sight problems to navigate.

Interest, real estate income or capital gains must be declared

FOOD, DRINK & TRAVEL

A WEBSITE extolling the virtues of traditional Valencian paella has celebrated its 10th anniversary by publishing details of 20 'hidden' paellas - special recipes 'not known even to Valencians'.

Wikipaella acknowledges 364 restaurants that make authentic paellas to Valencian standards.

Unsurprisingly 320 of those are in the Valencian Community, but outsiders are found in Madrid and Murcia, as well as further afield in the United Kingdom and the United States.

“A proper paella is down to unique ingredients,” said Wikipaella co-founder Guillermo Navarro.

The 20 'hidden' paellas have been compiled by Josep Piera who states that paella is 'not a recipe' but a technique of cooking rice which is considered by experts to be one of the hardest rice dishes to produce.

Brits lead the way as visitor numbers soar

SPAIN was visited by 13.7 million foreign tourists in the first three months of the year - 41.2% more than in the same period in 2022.

Between January and March, the total spend by international tourists was €17.2 billion, an increase of 44.7% compared to the same quarter last year, according to the National Statistics Institute.

In March, 5.3 million visitors arrived in Spain (an increase of 30% compared to March 2022), who spent a total of €6.6 billion, 31.1% more than a year ago.

Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Hector Gomez,

AIR NOSTRUM will be offering summer flights connecting Castellon with Sevilla for the third year in a row.

The company has announced the route will be in operation from June 1 to October 15. Two frequencies a week will be offered, with flights on Thursdays and Sundays.

Flights taking off from Sevilla will depart at 6.30pm on Thursdays and at 3.50pm on

FOREIGN TOURIST SURGE

By Alex Trelinski

claimed the figures were proof that ‘2023 is becoming an extraordinary year for tourism in all measures with higher spending and longer stays’.

“We are witnessing the consolidation of tourism as one

Fly to Sevilla

Sundays. While those doing the reverse route are set to leave Castellon Airport at 8.20pm on Thursdays and at 2pm on Sundays. Tickets start at €39 and can be purchased at www.iberia.com

of the main drivers of the Spanish economy, which is also reflected in the quality of employment in the sector and in an increasingly varied and innovative range of destinations," Gomez added. By country, the United Kingdom, dominates the foreign arrivals with 1.1 million visitors, experienced strong growth in March (up 29.4%) compared to the same month in 2022. France and Germany are the countries that come next on the visitor numbers tally. The Canary Islands were the top tourist destination in March, accounting for 24.7% of all foreign tourists (1.3 million people) - up 15.5% more than a year ago.

Dear Jennifer:

WORRY-FREE TRIPS

Be on the safe side with travel insurance that covers your needs

HOW wonderful that people are travelling again with ease, confidence and enjoyment.

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Single Trip Travel Insurance is for up to 180 Days, (31 days maximum for over 65’s), available up to age 79 and there are discounts for Couples & Families.

Annual Multi-Trip Travel Insurance allows individual trips of up to 17 days, however, you can choose 32, 45, 90 Days, (subject to age restrictions).

Cover up to age 79, and discounts for Couples & Families. With three levels of cover to choose from – Silver, Gold and Platinum, with varying levels of sums insured depending upon your travel needs, you have the choice to adapt the insurance to your travel requirements.

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DIGGING THE CAVES

Unique, historic, and always cool on a hot Spring day, the village of Setenil de las Bodegas near Ronda is the perfect spot for a weekend excursion

ANDALUCIA’S white villages, the pueblos blancos, cling to mountainsides throughout the region and rank among the most beautiful in Spain.

But there’s one that deserves to be singled out: Setenil de las Bodegas, in the northeast corner of Cadiz, is unique for its cave houses and cave restaurants and shops.

The village has grown up in and around cliffs in a river valley, located less than 20 kilometres north of Ronda. Many of the homes and businesses are set into caves, with just the whitewashed façades visible under the overhanging rock face. Several of the streets are also dug into the cliff and sheltered by massive jutting boulders, some of which are draped in ivy. On the outskirts some terraces of houses jut straight into the cliff face, some with curtailed rooflines, others, somehow,

Planning Ahead With a Funeral Plan in Spain

By Anthony Piovesan

with chimneys (above right). Walking through the town feels almost surreal: you just can’t imagine that a place like this exists – or that people actually live here.

Invasions

But Setenil has a population of nearly 3000, and records show there has been a village here since the 12th century - and it was certainly a settlement in Roman times.

Long before that, it was home to cave dwellers: Excavated objects show the town inhabited by troglodytes 25,000 years ago.

As the modern village grew, people dug into the cliff face and enlarged the caves, and built houses in the spaces between the rocky cliffs. This prevented them from getting too hot in the summer, and too cold in winter.

The chisel marks where caves have been excavated are still visible inside bars and restaurants. If you stay overnight in a cave house, you’ll be able to admire the handiwork while lying in bed or taking a shower.

Modern Setenil was founded in 1484, when Christian armies came from the north and expelled the Moorish rulers. It took the Christians 15 days

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to rid the village of the Moors who defended themselves from the castle at the top of the mountain.

The name ‘Setenil’ is believed to derive from ‘septem nihil’, a Latin phrase meaning ‘seven times no’ – in reference to the number of invasions successfully repelled. The other part of its name –‘Bodegas’ – is the Spanish for ‘store’, and refers to the caves which were once ideal for storing wine, grown in the nearby Ronda hills and popular back in ancient Rome.

Commercial wine production died out in the 19th century when phylloxera marched through, but today there are over 30 nearby vineyards (or bodegas) in the area again.

Valley walk

Setenil is a popular day trip, and on weekends you’ll see many tour buses and cars circling in search of a space. But here’s a hot tip: If you’re planning to drive to Setenil, leave your car in Alcala del Valle and take in the beautiful scenery and work up an appetite by walking the remaining three kilometres along the picturesque Arroyo de los Molinos.

On the weekends the cave restaurant terraces under the dramatic overhang on Calle Cue -

vas del Sol are very busy, but in the week it’s usually quiet. They specialise in Cadiz mountain food: tasty stews, pork and chorizo; revueltos (scrambled egg mixed with black pudding or asparagus); Conejo a la serranía (rabbit) and sopa cortijera (soup made with bread, poached eggs, and asparagus). They do good desserts too: puff pastry with quince, cider dumplings, and torta de aceite – cake made with olive oil and almonds.

If booking ahead, try to get a table at La Frasquita, Bar la Escueva or La Tasca (all on Calle Cuevas del Sol) for top atmosphere and shade.

Exploring

After lunch, explore the backstreets, some of which wind up between the huge boulders to the top of the town and the ruined Moorish castle. The tourist office in a medieval building has a beautiful patterned Moorish wooden ceiling, while there is an attractive 16th century church (Our Lady of Encarnacion) built on the site of a mosque.

A steep winding staircase right by the river on Calle Cuevas del Sol leads to a lookout, the Mirador del Carmen. From here, you can see the town complete in all its beauty, its rows of whitewashed houses snaking up the mountain, the jagged cliff faces, as well as the surrounding olive and almond fields.

It’s no surprise Setenil consistently makes it onto the ‘top places to visit’ lists, and particularly after the New York Times singled it out among its Top Ten for 2019.

For more information, visit www.turismodesetenil.com

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METEORITE: Like a giant rock has dropped on homes and streets

Choosing Compare Funerals can provide you with several benefits when it comes to arranging end-of-life services.

THE Covid-19 pandemic is officially finally over, according to the World Health Organisation.

The director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the announcement after the 15th meeting of the Emergency Committee, which recommended ending the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

During the meeting, the committee highlighted the decreasing trend in deaths and hospitalisations from Covid.

They also pointed out the high levels of population immunity against SARSCoV-2 as reasons for ending the PHEIC.

The previous meeting of

HAPPY NEWS

WHO announces that the Covid public health emergency is finally over - but with caveats

By Walter Finch

the Emergency Committee in January had concluded that it was still not the

European first

A SPANISH hospital has successfully implanted a miniature pacemaker into a prematurely-born baby for the first time in Europe.

The youngster, weighing barely one-and-a-half kilos, had suffered a congenital atrioventricular blockage (CCAVB) meaning the heart could not pump enough blood to meet the body's needs.

Around one in 22,000 babies are born with CCAVB with a high incidence of prolonged illness or even death.

Head of Valencia’s La Fe Hospital’s Arrhythmia Unit, Joaquin Osca, said: “The normal-sized pacemaker could not be implanted inside the baby's chest due to its size so we used a miniaturised version instead.”

The small pacemaker was imported from the United States after its use was authorised by the Spanish Agency for Medicine and Health Products.

moment to officially end the pandemic.

However, Tedros (above) said he would not hesitate to declare another emergency if the situation changed. Vaccines and other treatments have eliminated the risk the virus posed a few years ago, he added. Tedros also warned that despite the declaration of the end of the health emergency this year, the virus would remain a threat to global health.

Deaths

Despite the WHO’s pronouncement, there are still around 500 fatalities per day from Covid worldwide.

This adds up to more than 200,000 deaths per year, according to reported cases, while the actual number may be higher.

Aussie lessons

SPANISH actor Javier Bardem has told chat show host Conan O’Brien that listening to AC/DC songs helped him learn English, including ‘All the curses, all the bad words’.

Cashing in

THE Spanish state received €300 million over 10 years from ‘forgotten’ bank accounts under a rule where any cash or shares in dormant accounts must be handed over after 20 years.

Just quackers

A FAMILY of ducks led to a hold-up at Madrid’s Barajas airport when they decided to go for a waddle along the runway. They eventually strolled away unharmed.

O P LIVE RESS

Mayday!

Urgent rescue mission as pod of Orcas sink sailboat with crew of four

LIKE a scene from a horror movie, the crew of a sailboat had to be rescued half a mile off the Cadiz coast after a pod of aggressive killer whales tried to sink it.

Four sailors aboard the Alboran Champagne yacht made the distress call just after midnight.

The pack of enormous marine

By Walter Finch

predators had disabled the rudder and smashed a hole in the hull. Upon realising that they were taking in water, they donned their lifejackets and prayed that the coast guard would arrive in time.

Salvamar Enif arrived to rescue the crew just as the sailboat was starting to go under. The Alboran Champagne was so flooded that it was unable to be towed back to port, and so the boat was left adrift with a special light activated to warn

Hairbrained scheme

A BALD-faced attempt to cheat in a driving theory exam by hiding a camera under a comedy toupe did not pay off for one desperate learner driver.

The 24-year-old, of Chinese origin, attended his exam in Guadalajara with ill-fitting hair that immediately raised suspicion. Police swooped and discovered the wig hid a mini spy camera and a small earpiece, which the man had used to communicate with a friend who was reading the questions through the camera.

The man was given an automatic failure and a disqualification from taking the exam again for a further six months.

TRULY STUCK

other vessels in the area.

Several hours later it was almost entirely submerged under the Atlantic when a Guardia Civil auxiliary patrol boat arrived to salvage what was left of the wreckage. Orcas are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of the food chain, and they have been known to hunt a wide range of prey including fish, squid, seals, and even whales.

Wild

Despite their name, orcaswhich are a type of dolphinhave very rarely been known to attack humans in the wild. There have been reported cases of a specific pod of orcas harassing or bumping into boats in Northern Spain, west of Portugal and around Gibraltar.

A YOUNGSTER got himself into a tight spot after getting wedged between two fences in Benidorm. A fire crew was dispatched to the resort’s ‘English Zone’ where it used its hydraulic separator, normally used in traffic accidents, to free him.

Let us out!

YOUNG Brits fled the UK in their droves ‘to escape the King’s coronation’ - and Spain was one of their top getaways.

Short-haul jaunts to a host of Spanish hotspots were up fourfold over the coronation weekend.

Demand for trips to Benidorm and Ibiza rocketed – with travel firm Last Night of Freedom revealing clients were specifically saying they wanted to ‘escape the coronation’. Marbella and Madrid also saw a bump in bookings from Brits, while trips to Barcelona rocketed by a staggering 400% over the long weekend.