Los Barrios is closed tomorrow

LOS BARRIOS Well, not exactly. It just happens to be the municipality's Patron Saint Day, in honour of San Isidro Labrador. This means that all municipal offices and a lot more besides, are closed. So don't plan to do any shopping at the likes of Carrefour, Mercadona, Decathlon, MediaMarkt, etc. etc. in the Palmones area shopping centres, including all those little shops behind the larger ones. Chances are the cinemas will be open but very little else. This, of course, does not apply to other places outside the municipality.

Cemeteries feel the crunch: families are not paying for their 'nichos'

Algeciras, the old cemetery

ALGECIRAS (Agencies) The financial crunch is taking its toll on the families of those who have been interred at either of the two cemeteries in Algeciras, according to the Marcos Lo-Iacono, the manager of the cemeteries' concession company. He says that he had sent a list of 'payment pending' names to the Town Hall two years ago. All the official requirements were met (there is considerable paperwork involved, see below) but, says Lo-Iacono, "people must be aware that, unless a nicho is bought, it is a rental that lasts five years." PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ITEMS SUCH AS THIS MAY BE SUBJECT TO SUBSCRIPTION IN THE FUTURE but you can make a donation NOW, too! Please click here for more information on how to help us continue. (This item was translated, researched and edited, taking almost two hours to produce )>>>

Animal shelter needs volunteers urgently!

LOS BARRIOS The animal rescue centre in Los Barrios needs volunteers urgently. You can email: amee@spanishstraydogs.com or contact via Facebook: http://facebook.com/spanishstray. Their website is under construction, but Facebook has plenty of details about this organization's excellent work.

A walk in the muck as an environmental protest

LOS BARRIOS The local environmental protest group, Agaden, has organized a trip to a 'protest march' at Arroyo del Chorreón, the tributary of the Guadacortes River that runs through the area's rubbish tip in Los Barrios, for which there are plans to extend it. They are calling it 'a real environmental disaster' particularly because they have detected large quantities of leached heavy metals including chrome, nickel and cadmium, among others. They are setting out from Jimena at 11am on Saturday, March 3, from the main square. The route's organizers will be handing out masks and protective gear - and for those who wish to have the 'water' analysed, they will provide containers. This promises to be an important environmental protest march with good media coverage.

Municipal Secretaries, Auditors and Treasurers 'under great pressure'

Union protest, Los Barrios

CÁDIZ Province/ LOS BARRIOS The Municipal Town Clerks, Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers of the province are under very great pressure, according to their Official College. They even use the word acoso, or harassment. This, they say, is from a good number of municipalities in the province, not only from the governing councillors but also from members of the opposition and even from some unions. (Remember that there have been some very deep changes in the politics of almost all the municipalities of Cádiz, as well as in the provincial authority, Diputación). The latest case - but certainly not the only one - comes from Los Barrios, where>>>

Grace needs a loving home and plenty of food

LOS BARRIOS/JIMENA (By e-mail) The Los Barrios refuge centre got her yesterday. She was found wandering around some streets. So nobody knows anything about her. I took her from the shelter to my vet in Estación San Roque. I have named her Grace just so she has a name, which she thoroughly deserves. She is young; the vet thinks not even 2 years old. Her ears have been 'chopped to give that hideous curled look.

As you can see, she is skin and bone, but she had all her blood tests done and there's nothing wrong with her.  She just needs food and a good home. She LOVES the boot of the car!!!  Never wants to leave it.  Or never says no to jumping into it! If you know anybody who could give her a forever home please contact me, Renate (956 640 898).

Yes, it's open but...

LOS BARRIOS Our good friend Phil Heinzl sent this photo in this morning with the comment, "I misread this and had to look twice....yes it should read ABIERTO, but I couldn't help to adapt it." So on behalf of Yours Truly (that's Alberto to the rest of you), many thanks, Phil! You might have to click on it to get the point, but the management at the new Holiday Inn Express Hotel at Palmones may have something to say about it...

Jorge and Juan's outrageous verdict in Morocco

LOS BARRIOS/TARIFA/MOROCCO/SPAIN Assumptions are dangerous things but we've assumed you've been following this story elsewhere (we have, on Sancho's Tilting at Windmills). To quote Sancho on the background: "On June 5 the two men from Los Barrios had gone fishing off Tarifa with Jorge’s son, David. They got lost in the fog, strayed to near the Moroccan shoreline, called the Spanish coastguard for help but were detained by a patrol from Morocco. Initially they were held for entering Morocco without the necessary paperwork and David was sent home. Then as a consignment of eight bales of hashish was found in the area of their rescue along with a Jet Ski they were charged with drug trafficking and sentence to three years in jail plus a fine." There's more (below) - and an outrageous sentence. As the poster says: "What if this was you?! WHERE ARE THE POLITICIANS? They are also Spanish." (We suggest you read more about this case on Tilting at Windmills.) This item is also published on CampoPulse.

Are you keeping an eye on CampoPulse?

Our partner site CampoPulse is full of news about the Campo de Gibraltar in general. We are beginning to publish our Jimena articles there as well, in preparation for moving everything over there. However, in the meantime, we urge you to have a look at the sidebar, where a selection of the latest articles are listed under the Did you miss anything on CampoPulse? heading. Preponderant among the subjects to be found on CampoPulse is the current La Línea 'congestion charge' situation, which is updated daily and that is affecting many of our readers, and will certainly do so in the future if things continue as they are. So keep an eye on CampoPulse to get the latest for your town or village. (Photo: mollymccloy.com)

'Something smells bad'

(Original source: TioJimeno) At 25 past midnight, tonight, the RTVE programme, REPOR, is showing a report titled Algo Huele Mal (Something Smells Bad) about pollution in the Campo de Gibraltar and its impact on residents' health. Average life expectancy is twenty years less than the average for other parts of Spain, and the possibility nof contracting cancer is 50% above the average. Los Barrios, Algeciras and San Roque have the highest impact. Our air contains a large number of contaminants that, on their own, are aggressive and unhelthy; but even more dangerous is the sinergy between them - that is, breathing a mixture of these contaminants. Members of the Plataforma de Ciudadanos Rodeados por las Fábricas (Citizens Surrounded by Factories), accompanied reporters from the programme through Los Barrios (Read the whole story on CampoPulse)

Reservoirs at capacity levels release water

(Agencies) The Provincial Delegation for the Environment announced yesterday that all the area's reservoirs continue to release water through controlled sluice gates that have remained open since before the end of last year. The One at Guadarranque (Castellar - photo) does so at a rate of 30m2/second, Charco Redondo (Los Barrios) at 18m2/sec and that at Almodóvar (Tarifa), at 86% capacity, at 7m2/sec.

Tallest building in Andalucía inaugurated yesterday

(Agencies) The Torres de Hércules in Los Barrios, the tallest office building in Andalucía, was opened officially yesterday by the Mayoress of Los Barrios, Ángeles Ariza, and Antonio Luque, president of Valcruz Gestión, the developer from Córdoba under whose aegis the building was built. With a total of 20,000 sq.m. of office space and 126 metres in height, the towers are officially taller than the Giralda in Sevilla and the Torres Kia buildings in Madrid. Some 12% of the available space has already been leased and the developers are in negotiations with companies such as Acerinox, Cepsa and Hanjin Shipping, all with local connections, as well as with other national and international corporations wanting a presence in the Campo de Gibraltar. A restaurant is planned for the top floor of one of the towers, which will offer magnificent views of the Bay of Algeciras, Gibraltar and the African coastline. For those who have tried to decipher the letters on the side of the towers, they read non plus ultra in Latin, or 'Nothing Further Beyond' in English, closely associated with the Pillars of Hercules, which according to Roman mythology were built by Hercules, near the Straits of Gibraltar, marking the edge of the then known world. According to mythology the (original) pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra (also Non plus ultra, "nothing further beyond"), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further.