Share with friends

Don’t get caught out by the weather this week!

DON’T DRIVE DON’T GET THE TRAIN EITHER The province suffers another setback with High Speed as low-cost trains with Madrid are delayed for nine months. The operator Ouigo will begin the connection between Valencia and the Spanish capital in October and justifies the delay in terms with Alicante due to the adaptation to the new rail security system.

The province of Alicante will not have until the first half of 2023 -if there are no setbacks- low-cost AVE trains from the operator Ouigo that link with Madrid. A new delay that for the economic and social sectors of Alicante is a burden for the territory and a comparative offense with respect to the province of Valencia, which from next October 7 will be connected to the Madrid station of Chamartín in less than two hours, which will allow its travelers to benefit from a greater hourly frequency and more affordable prices. The new low-cost high-speed train operator in Spain has attributed the delay to two reasons. On the one hand, to the delay in the construction works of the new Chamartín-Atocha tunnel in Madrid that is being undertaken by Adif, the Railway Infrastructure Administrator that reports to the Ministry of Public Works. A circumstance that already led the operator to fail to meet the objective of starting the service with Valencia on July 1, as planned, with the consequent delay for the connection with Alicante. The second reason, as indicated by Ouigo, is the need to standardize the safety system of the specific two-story Alstom Euroduplex trains that will be used between Alicante and Madrid and that are different from those of the line between Valencia and Madrid. Both explanations are not satisfactory, since the works on the Atocha-Chamartín tunnel seem to only affect the case of the High Speed between Madrid and Alicante and not between Valencia and Madrid. Regarding the safety of the road, it is a new argument that until now had not appeared despite the successive delays suffered by the AVElow cost in the province of Alicante.

WORK FOR MONEY BUY LESS AND LESS Spain, the second OECD country where wages lose more purchasing power. Inflation is feeding on lower-income families, who are seeing how the cost of living becomes 66% more expensive than that of the richest households. The escalation of inflation spurred by the war in Ukraine and the general rise in energy prices has been hitting the pockets of families across Europe for months. However, it does not impact all countries with the same harshness and not all social classes suffer it equally. Spain is the second country in the OECD where wages are experiencing a greater loss of purchasing power, given the scant increases that payrolls are registering this year, the few agreements in the face of the intense increase in the price of the shopping list, according to the study published this Friday by the OECD. The institution's economic studies cabinet considers that the general decline in wages removes the threat that they feed a new inflationary spiral. "The risk is lower than in the past," they point out. This same Friday the Ministry of Labor has updated its data on registered collective agreements. The few that are renewed, given the generalized blockade of the collective bargaining tables due to the lack of a salary agreement between the employers' association and the unions, reveal an average increase of 2.6% until August. A figure four times below inflation. Data that coincide in line with the estimates made by OECD economists, who anticipate that the wages of Spaniards will lose an average of 4.5% this year of purchasing power. It is the second highest rate of all the states analyzed by the OECD, only surpassed by Greece (-6.9%). Although all the countries register setbacks in purchasing power, that of Spain practically doubles that of the OECD average and is clearly above the cases of Italy (-3.1%) or Germany (-2.6 %).

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR STORMS? The CHS clears the old and new channels of the Segura to facilitate its drainage capacity. The basin organization eliminates the reeds and vegetation in the final stretch of the river - The investment in this type of action throughout the year reaches 2.6 million euros, twice as much as in 2021. The Segura Hydrographic Confederation ( CHS) has completed the clearing and maintenance work on the old and new riverbeds of the Segura River in the vicinity of its mouth in Guardamar. Specifically, the reeds and vegetation have been removed with machinery to ensure, together with the installation of the connection gates of both channels, the intended objective of facilitating the passage of water between both channels in the event of large floods as a result of intense rains. and continuous, with which the old channel is discharged through the new channel in less time. the municipalities of Rojales and Guardamar, as well as in other parts of the province that the technicians consider to be a priority. "These works are being carried out as ordinary maintenance of riverbeds that are usually carried out by the CHS within the public hydraulic domain and that are increased at the end of of the hydrological year in anticipation of rains, in order to allow the passage of flows generated by ordinary floods, comp compatible with the existence of natural and native vegetation in the riverbed", according to the CHS, which has also highlighted that the investment will exceed 2.6 million euros throughout this year, doubling the 1.3 million that were allocated in 2021 to this type of performance.

ENJOY THE LAST HEAT NOW RAINS Temperatures were 30 degrees over this weekend but a strong drop and rains are expected on Tuesday. The breezes will mitigate the heat during the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday in the province, but in the central hours of the day the embarrassment will persist. Everything indicates that the days of summer temperatures are numbered and, as announced days ago, Danielle's probable conversion from a tropical cyclone to a storm will cause an abrupt change in weather on the Iberian Peninsula, which will generate very generous rainfall on the Atlantic slope and some dispersion of the rains in the Mediterranean.m "The important thing is that for our interests, from Tuesday it will rain and most importantly, with a sharp drop in temperatures," explains meteorologist Lluís Francés. For this Friday, another day of sky cobwebbed by high clouds, maximum temperatures close to 35 degrees Celsius in the interior regions and winds that, starting at noon, will mark the moderate maritime component, is expected in the province of Alicante. Tomorrow, Saturday, temperatures will drop -they will be around 30 degrees- in a day of scarce and variable cloudiness with maritime flows. Few changes for Sunday, if anything higher maximums and reinforcement of breezes. "But next week the changes will come," insists the Alicante Regional Weatherman.

DRONES ATTACK APARTMENT ON BEACH A beach rescue drone crashes into an apartment in El Campello. The collision has been recorded in a house in the Cabo Verde urbanization, at the mouth of the Seco River, destroying the window pane but without causing personal injury. The Civil Guard has taken charge of the investigation to clarify why the Generalitat apparatus was out of control. The residents of the Cabo Verde urbanization in El Campello have had a tremendous scare. A Generalitat beach rescue drone has crashed into an apartment, shattered a window and fallen into the water, although only material damage has been recorded, according to municipal and neighborhood sources close to the case.

The Civil Guard has taken charge of the investigation to clarify why the device, which wears two life jackets and weighs 9 kilos, has been out of control and has ended up crashing into one of the houses in this urbanization next to the mouth of the river Dry. One of the hypotheses is that it suffered a breakdown. The events have been recorded on Friday afternoon, when around 4:00 p.m. a loud rumble could be heard in the urbanization. A resident who lives next to the affected house explained that "a rescue drone has turned and entered the apartments and has exploded against the window that overlooks the beach. There was a child reading next to the window and the scare has been tremendous." Fortunately, no injuries have been reported, and members of the Generalitat's rescue service have proceeded to rescue the drone from the water.

WILL ELECTRIC GO DOWN The price of electricity will drop this Sunday more than 3%, to 275.4 euros. The rate will be about 52 euros lower than the 327.78 euros that would have been paid without the gas cap mechanism. Electricity will fall more than 3% tomorrow to 275.4 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), according to the results of the auction in the wholesale or 'pool' market and the adjustment to be paid after the gas cap to compensate the plants that use this material. According to the operator of the electricity market OMIE and the Iberian Gas Market (Mibgas), the wholesale price of electricity (the one paid by consumers with a regulated rate) will be around 52 euros lower than the 327.78 euros that the MWh would have been paid if the cap on gas for electricity generation had not been in place. In a context marked by the energy crisis facing Europe due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ministers of Energy of the Twenty-Seven agreed this week to reduce electricity consumption and tax the profits of energy companies. In addition, they have also asked the European Commission for proposals to study an "emergency and temporary intervention" in the electricity market, including a cap on the price of gas imported from Russia.

NEW LAKES PROJECT The CHS projects two macro lakes that threaten Sierra Escalona

Friends of Sierra Escalona allege the draft of the works to connect the desalinated water in Torrevieja with the reservoirs of the basin for affecting the protected landscape. The Friends of Sierra Escalona (ASE) association is going to present allegations to the preliminary project for the interconnection works of the seawater desalination plants in the Segura basin, which is on public display. The Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) intends with this action that the Torrevieja desalination plant yield more and increase its effectiveness by redistributing resources to the basin's reservoirs. However, ASE considers that "it is outrageous", in the words of its president, Miguel Ángel Pavón. Not in vain, "it affects the environment of Sierra Escalona", he explains. Specifically, the aim is to build two macro-water reservoirs within the protected landscape of Sierra Escalona and its surroundings, one at the highest point of the Sierra del Cristo, on some 3.5 hectares of El Serretón (272 meters high), and the other over approximately 1.5 hectares of the northern part of the peak area of the Sierra de Pujálvarez, at a distance of about 300 meters. Each of the ponds also has a new access road, with its embankments and clearings in the shady areas of the mountains. "Both the macro-ponds and their roads would have a very negative impact on biodiversity and the landscape," says Pavón, who insists that it is "complete nonsense." In addition, a 4-kilometre overhead power line is planned in the priority birdlife protection area, opposite an area linked to the Sierra Escalona Special Protection Area for Birds, to power the new pumping station, which would be located under the La Pedrera dam, and drive the water from La Pedrera to the new macro-ponds of the Cristo and Pujálvarez mountains. In addition to all this, the layout of the pipes to connect La Pedrera with the macro-ponds and these with the Ojós and Rambla de Algeciras reservoirs, in Murcia, also invades the protected landscape. The preliminary draft itself warns of the effect on the protected landscape of Sierra de Escalona and its surroundings, which "will see its current morphology affected." Specifically, continues the document that is on public display, it concerns 12.76 hectares, which represents 0.12% of the total, of which 10.28 hectares correspond to permanent occupations by the drive regulation ponds de Ojós and Algeciras, as well as their access roads. And he even adds that "the impact on the affected area of the space will be permanent, changing its topography and appearance, which is currently eminently natural."

CARPOOL CAR SHARING Shared cars against inflation. The need to agree on the alternative use of private vehicles to reduce costs in the face of rising fuel prices is increasing among workers, students and athletes. The rise in fuel prices and inflation are altering the mobility habits of Alicante residents. There are more and more workers, students and athletes who share a vehicle on their daily journeys. Carpool. A measure for which the public powers have tried to raise awareness in society for years without achieving great results, is now taking force spontaneously. The objective pursued by the Administration is to reduce the emission of polluting gases and avoid the saturation of the roads, moving towards sustainable mobility. Well, the fact that more and more people agree to share vehicles to save on high fuel prices is having the desired effect. But now it's being done out of sheer necessity because it's time to tighten your belt... Lidia Valiente, a 34-year-old administrative resident in Elda, has been coming to Alicante every day for six months for work reasons. «I had never shared a car but on the second day of work I asked among my colleagues if any of them also lived in Elda and I found one who lives in Novelda. So since then we share the trip every day to go and to return. I go to Novelda, I park my car at the entrance to the city and she waits for me there with hers. And every week we rotate the vehicle so that the wear is also the same. The truth -she admits- is that the trip becomes more enjoyable, you have company and even the company has given us facilities so that we can coincide on the same shift». Precisely at the meeting point between the two, many other students and workers who follow the same method tend to coincide.

“Independence is lost, it is true, because you no longer have the freedom to leave wherever and whenever you want. But you also save a little money that allows you to reach the end of the month with less trouble. At least in my case”, explains Jesús Martínez, 23, a vocational training student in Alcoy. In his case, he drives his car and charges four euros for the two companions he brings with him from Alicante. "I've been doing it for two courses now and I've only had problems with one person who didn't pay me what we agreed on," he explains, adding that "I also have a friend who does the same thing as me but takes a passenger on the motorcycle." There are also many athletes from the same team, especially players from football and basketball clubs in Alicante and Elche, who go in the same car to weekly training sessions and matches at home or away. In the case of minors, it is the mothers and fathers who organize themselves and each week a family is usually in charge.

TOLL FEES ON ALL ROADS COMING SOON Free toll roads: travel at night and save money

Check the routes where you don't have to pay between 00:00 and 06:00. There are some who don't like it at all and there are others who only see advantages. And it is that traveling by car at night can save you more than one traffic jam, the sun does not heat the car and, therefore, the car's cooling system suffers less. In addition, those who have children can drive with them asleep, which gives enormous peace of mind. To these benefits we must add that throughout Spain there are highways that do not charge anything from 00:00 to 06:00, thus being able to go along roads that are usually very well maintained. Among the highways that do not have to go through the toll if we travel during these hours we have the four radials of Madrid, the AP-41 that goes from Madrid to Toledo, the AP-7 from Cartagena to Vera, the AP-36 from Ocaña to La Roda, the M-12 (Madrid airport axis) and the Alicante ring road. The Government wants to end free highways. We have to take advantage of the fact that these highways are free, since the Government intends to establish payment on all highways, which have always been free. They still don't know how they are going to do it, but it is only a matter of time, so it will be necessary to prepare your pocket.

RECAP The madness continues, they want us to stop using cars completely yet they cant get a decent train service up and running, remember last week the trams had the electrical problem! How the feck does a war in a insy bitsy tiny country like Ukraine cause the cost of living in Spain rise by 66%? Answers on a postcard to Scamchez please! If you have noticed the councils are actually cleaning out all the ditches ready for rain!! Im not surprised its going to rain with the amount of weather manipulation in the skies that they are using! Talk about this is the end of reality, we are being taken over by machines drones and phones, now the rogue drone attack an apartment near the beach and smashs its windows in, wait till this happens in an electric car, that could be fatal! The government has promised a reduction in the price of electric from today so keep an eye on your bills. How do you make people happy to pay 100% more for electric, you quadruple the price the drop it by half! We need more drinking water, we have a desalination plant to convert sea water to drinking water, but once its converted they need somewhere to keep it, so they have a plan to make a man made lake! Watch the green brigade muck this up by opposing a lake! Because the trains and trams don’t work, they now want you to share your car with others! Plus they are saying charge your friends, surely that’s an illegal taxi run! Wait till the taxis drivers find out if you can ever find a taxi? The Spansih government mak a grand announcement that the toll roads will be free at night form midnight until 6 in the morning then drop the bombshell they are going to put tolls on all major roads to stop you driving! I thought we paid for the roads with car taxes etc?

Share with friends

Receive new articles in your emailbox