March 2015 News Headlines

Xàbia inaugurates Port Plaza dedicated to midwife, Maruja Varó

March 31st
The Plaza "Comare Maruja Varo" next to Bar Clavo behind the Grava beach in the Port has been inaugurated. This public space has been named in memory of a Xàbia midwife who, since the 1960's attended over 3000 births spanning several generations in the town.
From Press release

Xàbia has finished renovating old lime kilns for heritage and tourism

March 31st
Two ancient lime kilns have been restored in the area ravaged by last September's fire on the Montgó. These were used from Roman times to transform limestone into lime, a basic component of mortar, mortar construction, plastered walls, walls or stucco. The records showed that there formerly existed 54 in various areas of the municipality, mostly in forest areas with abundant supplies of wood and stones. Within the context of works following the fire two kilns known as ‘les faroleres’ have been reconstructed on La Plana’s Cap de Sant Antoni. For full story see: Montgó Lime Kilns
(Ed's note: here's a lovely "Powerpoint" slide show (in Castellano) on how they did it in Orgaz (near Toledo), where kilns were more underground, and seem more elaborate than the ones around here…)

Xàbia Municipal election campaigns kick off

Coalition parties present their candidate lists

March 31st
The political parties which currently make up the ruling coalition have made their first moves in the campaign for May's Municipal elections. Last Saturday, Xabia Democrática announced its joint candidate list with Ciudadanos Por Xàbia - between them, these two parties currently have 5 councillors on the ruling coalition, and hope that by combining forces they can win more. They are led by current Deputy Mayor, Oscar Anton. On Monday, Xàbia's Socialist (PSOE) mayor, José Chulvi launched his pitch for re-election as mayor by giving a speech in English to an English speaking audience. Full reports on both meetings can be found in Javeamigos - XD / CPJ meeting and Javeamigos : Chulvi meets expats meeting

Britain seeks scientific collaboration with Spain

March 29th
A new initiative launched on Thursday by the British Embassy in Madrid aims to capitalize on the so-called "brain drain" by linking up scientists that have moved abroad. The new British Scientists in Spain (BSS) Network establishes a communications platform between the British and Spanish scientific communities…."Spain has made huge leaps in areas such as renewable energy, agri-technology and in the 'new materials' sector so we are working to boost partnership in those areas." The field of biomedical research is also an area where bridges can be made. For full story see: The Local.es

Telefónica to triple customers’ broadband speeds before summer

March 29th
Telecom operator Telefónica has announced that it will triple the connection speed for all its internet customers before the summer. The communications provider will also switch all its ADSL clients to its new fiber-optic network as soon as the service is available in their location at no extra charge. The unprecedented move rests on the fact that Telefónica knows its customers require a quality broadband connection in order to subscribe to its new services, such as streaming video or pay TV. From El Pais in English.

Xàbia rejects plans to extend building over La Grava beach

March 20th
The Mayor of Xàbia, José Chulvi, issued a public statement rejecting a proposal submitted by the Ports Department to extend a terrace of the building known as the Meson del Puerto over some 150m2 of the Grava beach. They plan to install a cafe-gym and an outside chill-out terrace. The Grava already very small and receding beach, which is maintained only by the regular addition of gravel/stones by the Town Hall. It is the only beach that remains in the Port since the disappearance of the Tango beach. The planned construction of iron platform with wooden decking, would be installed at the eastern side, which is an area protected from the wind and sea-swell making it the preferred location for older people and users in the winter. For full statement see: Meson del Puerto development

Jávea leads fight to maintain budget for foreign residents

March 10th
In 2011 the Provincial Government of Alicante - Unit of Foreign Citizens launched a programme of integration and collaboration which it called PROYECTO OPTIMIZA. This is an initiative aimed at policy makers and technicians of the municipalities in the province of Alicante where there is a significant percentage of foreign residents. The philosophy of the program is the integration of activities and projects among the various municipalities in order to optimize the scarce resources available to the municipalities for a subject as broad as the foreign resident. …This year the budget allocated to the implementation of programmes organised by the Unit of Foreign Citizens as part of the Project Optimiza initiative is only 142,300.00 euros. This is a reduction of some 107,800.00 euros …A motion put forward for the budget to be restored has been tabled by Xàbia Democratica for the Xàbia Town Council. For full story see: Javeamigos

The Ebro overflows while the Valencian Community suffers from water shortage

March 5th
The recent massive flooding in the Ebro valley has affected 2000 farmers and 19,200 hectares of farmland in Aragon. (Las Provincias), and at present the water in just one reservoir on the Ebro contains four times the amount of water needed per year for irrigation by farmers in the Valencian Community (Las Provincias print edition) …This has revived discussion about a water transfer scheme between the two river basins which was mooted some years ago.. See: PDF on Dropbox for article in Las Provincias and diagram

Spain outstrips France and Italy in wine exports

March 5th
Spain is a relative newcomer on the international circuit, compared to the French and Italians, yet it has beaten records to become the biggest wine exporter in the world. According to data published on February 23rd by Spanish wine market observatory (Obervatorio Español de los Mercados del Vino – OEM) Spanish wine exports reached 22.8 million hectoliters in 2014, a 22.3 percent rise on 2013. But while the volume of sales has increased, profits have fallen 2.2 percent since 2013…But if Spain is the biggest exporter of wine in the world, why have profits fallen? The answer may lie in the fact that the majority of wine exported from Spain, 55 percent, is sold in bulk, i.e. not bottled. For full story see: The Local.es

Four out of five Spaniards feel economy is “same” or “worse”

March 4th
Spaniards’ concern about corruption has dropped seven percentage points in a month, but people are increasingly worried about the economy and the consequences of austerity cuts. The latest survey by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) shows that despite recent macroeconomic figures suggesting a recovery, over half of the Spanish population still believes that the country’s economic situation will not improve in 2016, compared with 28% who feel it will. for full story see: El Pais in English

Free WiFi in the Old Town

March 4th
The business association Centro Histórico de Xàbia, in collaboration with the Ayuntamiento de Xàbia, has announced details of the new free Wi-Fi network in the historic centre of the town that will be available to residents and tourists. The system uses the existing guifi.net network which has been installed for online radio and the sponsored wi-fi zones already operating in SSID proox-infoxabia. Users will have to register first (email, age and sex) after which they will be able to use the zone without any time limit. For full story see: Javeamigos

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