The News Online in English - 14

The News in English

Institut Roquetes Radio Online

Local villages still in shock after the fire in la Serra del Cardo Boix

1. Villagers are still trying to come to terms with the devastation caused by the recent fires. This state of shock is exaggerated because of the memories of other fires from 1995 and 2005. Local authorities have repeated their calls for management strategies for tackling the risk of new fires which would reduce the impact of any new incidents. They are asking for the enactment of measures that were presented this spring by the University of Lleida which include the cleaning of undergrowth, controlled burning and the management of the forests either through grazing or biomass projects.

One of the suppliers to the Aldea cooperative mounts a solitary protest

2. Javier Garcia, owner of Sanitub Delta, plans to start a solitary protest against the cooperative this next week because of the serious financial problems his company has as a result of Aldea’s cooperative’s financial collapse. Sanitub was responsible for the installation of the watering systems for lands that form the cooperative as well as having its own personal bank account with the cooperative’s credit section. Garcia says that the believes the council in Aldea will back his protest and that the cooperative will have to take steps soon.

Vandellos 2 the nuclear power station is being recharged

3. The power station is now undergoing the eighteenth recharging of its working life so far. The station was disconnected from the electric network this last Saturday while the recharging is in process. The station is changing 69 of its 157 fuel rods and also undergoing maintenance and inspections. The company has announced that the work will mean jobs for one thousand two hundred workers in the sixty different companies involved and will cost sixty three point eight million euros. When the work has been completed the power station will be able to operate for another year and a half without further recharging.

Gas Natural Fenosa invests half a million euros to bring gas to Ametlla

1. Work will start next June on the infrastructure of pipes that will bring natural gas to all the homes in Ametlla. The network will be 5000 metres long in total and have over 400 connections in this first phase of the installation. At the same time the company is going to start work on the connection of the storage centre for liquid gas and the system in Ametlla. Miquel Andreu Lopez, spokesman for the company, called the plan ambitious and said that work on the connection to Ametlla would start in a couple of weeks and then work on the network in Ametlla itself would start in three months time.

Resident in El Camp de Tir in Alcanar accuse Simex of creating clouds of dust

2. Local residents have accused the cement factory of Alcanar platja and its owner Simex of emiting clouds of dust that Neighbors say are affecting their houses. The dust is released, they say, during the early hours of the morning, when it is raining or on days when there is thick cloud cover so that local people don’t realize what is happening. After the complaints authorities opened a file on the company but now say that the complaints are unfounded. Simex have said that they haven’t received any complaints and that contamination levels are within legal limits. Neighbors say they have complained to the company on numerous occasions and now are saying that the company should pay for their houses to be painted once a year, for their cars to be cleaned and for half the maintenance costs in local olive fields.

The Quicos promote the Jota in a summer school

3. The famous local group have said that they will take part in the summer school “Jota Campus” between the 23^rd and the 28^th of July Poblenou in the delta. The school will be part of the network of schools promoting Popular Catalan culture and will combine studies of the Jota, singing, dance and its music, with work on local culture and good clean fun. The network will have seventeen schools in total spread across the whole of Catalunya.

The News in English May (13)

The News in English 

Fibre Optic cable arrives in Ametlla 

1. This last Friday May 18th was the official presentation of the fibre optic cable service in Ametlla. The presentation was done in the prescence of the mayor of Ametlla Andreu Marti. The representatives of the project have expressed their conviction that the use of fibre optics will place Ametlla right up there with the best in terms of IT technology and will bring benefits to businesses, local associations, the council and private users. If you would like to know more about the services they offer then you can contact them at info@lacalafibra.net 

Rasquera, El Perello and Tivenys will ask for subventions to help recover after the recent fires. 

2. The mayors of the three villages have said they will ask for government money to help in the recovery of the areas affected by the recent fires. This will be in addition to the normal amounts available as compensation for fire damage. They have pointed out that the last fire in the area, seventeen years ago, combined with this one mean that serious investment is needed to be able to help in the recovery of the Serra de Cardo el Boix and avoid another repetition of the fires in the future. 

Neighbors with investments in the Cooperative in Aldea will direct the new institution 3. Jordi Gas, the spokesperson for the neighbors whose money is still tied up in the cooperative, will lead the new institution together with eight other people. This new leadership has still to be approved by the whole cooperative in an assembly on June 4th next. Gas has announced a new plan for the viability of the cooperative and the local council has programmed a series of sporting and cultural activities to try to collect some money for the neighbors who still haven’t received their investments.  

Agusti Pallares touches the summit on Everest 

1. The mountaineer from La Cala has come just short of the top of the world’s highest mountain in his latest attempt to climb it. Agusti, forty-nine and a fireman started his final ascent at the end of last week after bad weather had kept him at base camp for several weeks. He was finally obliged to give up after strong winds prevented him from reaching Camp three at seven thousand two hundred metres last Friday. His fellow climber on this expedition Jesus Klimber was luckier and was able to climb to the summit itself at eight thousand eight hundred and forty-one metres with the help of his Sherpa L’Akba in the early hours of Sunday morning.  

The traditional bull running in Terres de l’Ebre has already received its first legal challenges 

2. The Association against the mistreatment and torture of Animals has accused the bull running group of Mas de Barberans for cruelty to a bull involved in the traditional “bou embolat”. The association has denounced that various people who were obviously drunk took part in the celebration and that cloths were thrown at the bull when its horns were still burning with the intention of setting the animal on fire, actions which could have seriously injured the bull’s sight. 

The teachers’ and students’ strike has a patchy response 

 3. As is now traditional after any large strike there has been a great difference in the figures given for participation in the strike in education this last Tuesday. Here in the Terres de l’Ebre the education department has given 15 per cent as the number of teachers who actually went on strike, ten per cent less than the figure for the whole of Catalunya. The unions have said that twenty to twenty-five per cent of people went out on strike most of those in secondary schools were the numbers were nearer 50 per cent.