down for personal reasons

Los Montesinos has received subsidies worth 3,153,536.83 euros during 2022, thanks to their requests for 94 subsidies processed from the Valencian Community, according to the Councillor for Economic Development and Development, Ana Belén Juárez. She also confirmed that there a further six grants to be resolved, which could increase the amount by 793,695.46 euros.

She said that the figure is similar to last year in which a total of 3,823,495.60 euros was received, including the aid from the 2019 DANA, but which didn’t arrive until 2021.

Breaking down the figures Belén explained that of the 3,153,536.83 euros received, 2,058,663.18 euros came from the Generalitat Valenciana, 1,043,902.54 euros from the Diputación de Alicante and 50,971.11 euros from the State.

“This year we have only been denied two grants out of the 94 requested”, she said.

Further aid has been received by the Los Montesinos Employment and Local Development Agency has processed aid this year alleviate the COVID and the energy crisis; as well as a number of others for associations. The Council itself has provided direct aid contemplated to CD Montesinos, the Los Montesinos Musical Group and the Aromas de Azahar Choir, in addition to scholarships for displaced students to pursue studies that are not available in the municipality.

TOAD-SELLER FROG MARCHED INTO COURT

At a press conference held on Thursday morning, Patricia Men·rguez, Councillor for the Environment, Sports and Equality, has announced her resignation as a councillor for personal reasons. She was accompanied by the mayoress Carolina Gracia and her PSOE colleagues. Mari Carmen Moreno will assume her responsibilities as a councillor.

Men·rguez, who was clearly upset, said that she had thought long and hard about the matter but that the decision was purely personal.

She said that politics requires "exclusive availability and that personal situations are changing. I am leaving with the satisfaction of having promoted many things such as the first day of the LGBTBI pride in Orihuela, the Spanish Beach Handball Championship, bringing Orihuela closer to the districts, and the second plan for Equality and bike lanes".

"In just a few months, many issues that had seen no movement were brought forward, something that must be valued."

"It has been an immense honour", to be a councillor for the Orihuela City Council, she indicated. She has said goodbye, very emotionally, with a "See you in Orihuela".

Mayor Carolina Gracia said "it is a moment full of emotion for the PSOE. Patri is a very good colleague, a hard worker and a woman always committed to Orihuela, both in opposition and in government. Circumstances change at a level personal and difficult decisions have to be made to respond to personal needs as well as those of the government team. It is an honest and courageous decision and one that we respect."

Men·rguez's powers are assumed by M™ Carmen Moreno GÛmez, who retired from a position at the Vega Baja de Orihuela Hospital, mainly in the area of outpatient consultations, in 2022.

The Alicante court has sentenced a man to a fine of 1,080 euro, after he was found guilty of selling 'bufo calamita', or natterjack toads, on the internet.

In addition to the fine, the offender is disqualified from exercising any profession and trade related to breeding or trade of wild animals and for hunting and fishing for one year and eight months.

The Police found specimens of toads of the 'bufo calamita' species, also called natterjack toads, on an advertisement website, back in 2017,at a price of 15 euro each.

On raiding the seller's home, in Alicante, they seized 23 amphibians that he had in his possession with the intention of profiting from their sale.

The judge said that he knew that the animal was included in the list of wild species under special protection and in the Spanish catalogue of threatened species.