Memory lapse

DOGS, surfboards, suitcases, motorcycle helmets, and crutches were among 2,297 items left behind on TRAM d’Alacant services last year. It means an average of six items per day were lost with October (390 items) being the most forgetful month. The summer peak travel months of July and August - along with January - saw the lowest number of items handed in.

By Alex Trelinski

my stairs,” he told the Olive Press “It was a definite sign that I needed to stop and, in any case, the authorities are seemingly uninterested. “Do I need to make myself seriously unwell to get any official response? Making myself ill was not the ultimate goal!”

Devastated

Saxby, an English teacher by trade, was devastated when the Spanish authorities rejected his residency application, as we reported in our last issue.

He was particularly angry as he had submitted it before ‘Brexit Day’, January 1, 2021, but was denied residency as he didn’t have private medical insurance, which he immediately acquired. Despite appeals to the European Commission and the Ombudsman for help, he has still been unsuccessful. His residency battle revolved around delays caused by the pandemic

PLUMMETED: Saxby lost an incredible eight kilos which cut down any time to rectify the health insurance omission.

“There were difficulties accessing websites to log in my details and then I kept being referred to different offices for appointments across the Valencia region due to Covid delays,” he explained.

Insurance

“On top of that under the withdrawal agreement, we were promised a threemonth period to deal with any problems which would have identified the insurance issue,” he added. The hunger strike was a last throw of the dice, but not surprisingly health issues started to kick in, before anyone in power took any interest. He began eating again, little by little, and is hoping not to have suffered any long-term health problems.

discharge areas, electric power sockets, showers, and vending machines.

The firm markets the site as a ‘very quiet area just 50 metres from the sea’ and is regularly mentioned in motorhome publications and websites as ‘the best site in Torrevieja’.

Camper Park Torrevieja said that despite receiving the closure notification, it will not shut as its purpose is only a car park business and maintains that it asks users to sign a declaration to that very effect.

He is now being forced to return to the UK to prevent being arrested and extradited. As a non-resident, non-EU passport holder he must adhere to the ‘90 days stay within 180 days’ rule.

The Valencian authorities have not replied to questions from the Olive Press “I really appreciate you covering this on your front page and I am still hopeful someone upstairs will take note,” he concluded.

Opinion Page 6

Food bank shock

A LOCAL food bank has reported that 47% of its users are full-time employees whose wage does not cover their basic needs.

Malaga-based NGO Asaec claims that high food inflation has tipped many minimum wage employees over the edge when it comes to affording to feed their families.

Boss Antonio Paneque told the Olive Press the number of people his organ -

Wallets and purses containing ID cards, passports, driving licences, bank cards and cash dominated the list along with keys, glasses, bags, folders, and umbrellas. Official documents and IDs are handed to police, while bank and credit cards are destroyed to prevent fraud. The rest of the items - presumably not including animals - are kept at a local station for at least a month before being transferred to a lost and found facility at the Luceros station in Alicante.

Food fight

A JUDGE has sided with a Spanish restaurant after it charged three diners €510 for failing to turn up to their dinner reservation.

The clients had been staying at the Hotel Villa Favorita, in San Sebastian, where the Amelia restaurant is located. While they had changed the reservation date for the hotel stay they had forgotten to do so for the dinner. When the group arrived for their meal, they were told that the restaurant was full and the reservation had been for the night before.

Credit

They were offered the chance to rebook a few weeks later, but opted not to, leading to the restaurant charging the amount to the man’s credit card account.

“We host a maximum of 20 people,” manager Xabier de la Maza explained.

“So if the client has any problem, we always charge for the reserved menus. But we usually arrange a voucher so that they can come at any time for the rest of the year or give it away as a gift.” isation is helping has exploded by 40% since the start of 2020.

In this case the client was so angry he filed charges arguing the cancelation policy was not clear when the reservation was made.

He added the amount charged was ‘disproportionate’, both arguments being rejected by the judge.

“There are people with salaries of €1,100, €1,200, €1,300, but these are wages that have not kept up with inflation.

He added: “Some people need to choose between paying for electricity or groceries. We are getting a number of people asking for canned meals because they cannot afford to switch on the oven.”

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.

Voted top expat paper in Spain OPINION

Fight the good fight

WHILE all seems to be lost in the fight to stop yet more concrete desecrating the Costa Blanca, campaigners have vowed to never give up.

Orihuela council has finally approved plans - apparently reluctantly - to build 2,200 homes at scenic Cala Mosca.

A move by Mayor Carolina Gracia to offer a land swap deal with developer Gomendio came to nought.

Now - despite visiting Brussels to personally oppose it way back in 2007 - she has given the green light, claiming the town would be bankrupted by the €200 million compensation it would have to pay the developer.

But local campaigners remain unimpressed by the political shenanigans that have seen the hot potato passed to and fro between the council and the Generalitat for years.

As campaign group Salvemos’ spokesman Angel Barcelo told the Olive Press: “The development is an attack on our town, against nature and yet another instance of the council damaging the coast.”

It is right that he points this out. The only people who actually want to see the development go ahead are the developers sniffing for yet another golden pay out.

But for some reason the politicians have been unable to halt the scheme.

So it now falls to the campaign groups to pick up their cudgels and stand in defence of the Costa Blanca coast, physically and in court.

But they need money to pay for a lawyer to take on the Goliath developer which is awash with cash. We urge people to support Salvemos in any way they can.

They are the last line of defence against Fat Cat developers with no concern for the coastline of this beautiful region.

PUBLISHER / EDITOR

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Anthony Piovesan anthony@theolivepress.es

Jo Chipchase jo@theolivepress.es

John Culatto

ADMIN Sandra Aviles Diaz (+34) 951 273 575 admin@ theolivepress.es