Costa del Sol News.

The Costa del Sol News August 11th. 2007.

On a European scale Málaga also came out well, being placed at no. 13, well ahead of Paris at 48 and London at 69.Two other Spanish cities also fared quite well with Oviedo at 16, Barcelona at 38.

The top 3 European cities to live in were Groningen (Holland), Krakow (Poland) and Aalborg (Denmark) respectively.

*AGE CONCERN on the COSTA DEL SOL* Age Concern, in conjunction with the British Consulate, have set up a help line for British visitors and residents alike aged over 50 on the Costa del Sol.

Trained Age concern volunteers based in Estepona field calls and compile statistics on resident's problems and the telephone line offers support and a guide to the eldest members of our community who are not sure how to access local social services. It will be a great help for those who are making the transition to Spain from the UK," said Age Concern board member Sue Mari.

Information will be offered on subjects such as, social services, medical assistance, obtaining benefits from the UK or how to collect pensions in Spain.

Bruce McIntyre, the British Consulate, says that there are in the region of 1 million British expatriates living in Spain with around a third of these being resident on the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca. It is hoped therefore that this initiative will be of great benefit to them and help to provide useful information that may otherwise be hard to find.

To call the Age Concern "INFOLINE" ring 902 033 838.

*MORE EXPENSES FOR HOME OWNERS IN ESTEPONA.* As a result of an outstanding debt owed by Estepona Town hall to both Acciona for the collection of,and Urbaser, for the treatment of, the town's rubbish a tax of between 100 and 120 euros per annum is to be levied on residents.

17 million euros is owed by the council to these 2 companies and seems to have arisen as a result of the scrapping, 2 years ago, of the refuse collection tax. It was done away with at the time because the IBI, or housing rate, was increased from 0.65% to 0.85% and this was to include refuse collection charges.

However now, in addition to the reintroduction of the refuse tax, the IBI has also been increased to 1.1% for residents not registered as living in Estepona and owners of more than one property.

*MARBELLA'S NEW TOWN PLAN NOW AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC.* The long awaited new draft plan for the future development of Marbella, PGOU. is now on display to the public and not surprisingly is attracting a lot of attention.

It is the first such plan for 21 years and most people are concerned with how it will effect the legalities of their own properties.

It can be studied at the Congress centre and the municipal offices in San Pedro Alcántara and Las Chapas until 30th. September. At the congress centre planning officials will be on hand to answer resident's questions.

Concerned members of the public have until the end of September to submit written feedback, objections and appeals and it is expected that there will be plenty of these.It is then proposed that October and November will be spent evaluating the objections and prioritising them, with particular emphasis on environmental impact, so that the final version will be ready in November.

*ROAD NETWORKS TO BE IMPROVED*THE Junta de Andalucia will be improving road connections between Valle del Guadalhorce and the Costa del Sol. More than 15 million euros will be invested initially in redesigning the old Puerto de los Pescadores road (the A-7053) joining Alhaurin el Grande and Coin with Fuengirola and Mijas Costa. The project will be focused on making the road wider and correcting curves as it is on a mountainous area.

The work which will be carried out on an 8.8 kilometre stretch is expected to be completed in 18 months, although it is still not known when construction will begin. Other changes within the redesign project include increasing the permitted speed limit to up to 80 kilometres per hour and more than four kilometres of slow traffic lanes will be opened to improve road safety.

*BRITISH LADY SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT FOR ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION.* Dennis S. from Britain, has been sentenced to 6 months in jail plus a fine of 3,600 euros along with an order for her wooden house to be demolished. The wooden home of 70 SQ.M was erected on 800 sq.m of land in the municipality of Alhaurin el Grande on land neither designated for building or within the town development plan.The judge, when pasing sentence, said that Ms.S. "knew from the beginning that she could not build such a home."

The sentence however is not yet final and may be modified at a future hearing.

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