What an Honour

Sorry to bore people with this but I am just so overwhelmed. I was actually nearly in tears.

Together with a few friends, all the councillors and our 2 Police officers. I unveiled the plaque on the newly named Plaza Jim Simpson. Unfortunately Luis had to be in Sevilla today but sent his best wishes.

To know that a small part of my favourite part of Spain will hold my name is an exceptional honour and one that I and my family will treasure. 

I have posted a few of the photos. I would like to have been able to give many more of you advance notice but I only knew myself yesterday.

 

An Amazing Honour

I have advised to be at the church in Los Llanos del Peral at 1.0pm tomorrow Wednesday 28th for an honour. 

They said I am to be honoured for my past 16 years of unpaid service, to the ex pat community, with a special award - the naming of the square outside the church in my name.

I am gobsmacked at such a lovely thought when in fact it is, all the people who have worked in the Town Hall, that deserve the thanks and honours for the work they have put in over the past 16 years on our PGOU etc and in making expats so welcome to the area. 

The invite is extended (albeit at a very short notice) to anyone who wishes to attend to come along. I did tell them that with such short notice I thought it unlikely many would attend but the invite is open in any case to anyone who wishes to come along. 

A Few Things

 A few things to communicate today.

1. I will be in the Town Hall in Zurgena on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. I have a couple of meetings arranged but if anyone wants to talk just let me know. 

2. On the Wednesday morning at 1100 myself and Jose will be at the Esparto Exhibition to help English speakers understand the importance of the Esparto industry in Spain and explain the exhibition. 

3. A few have shown interest in the International food day idea. We could persuade a few Spanish ladies to present their typical dishes ( which always goes down well) and recruit some Brits, Dutch or French. I will look at dates/locations for this next week when I am there and update the blog once sorted.

4. There is a trip to the baths at Archena on the 17th October. I have attached the poster. If you register for this you will pay for it at the time of registering and it is non refundable. There will not be an interpreter on this trip. You will need to take a towel, swim hat, a lock (for your valuables). If you wish to register please call into the TH asap as places are limited and fill up quickly. 

Esparto Exhibition and International Food Days

The Esparto exhibition is on until the end of this month.

I can arrange to have a translator there for a specific morning next week, for non Spanish speakers, if there is sufficient interest and I will be there as well.

We will only do it if there is sufficient interest So if you wish to attend please let me know asap and I will arrange. 

Secondly some of you may recall the food days we had where we shared food from the differing countries represented in our population. These were amazingly successful and fun. 

I realise I have already mentioned this but I am asking through this blog whether there is any interest in doing similar events in the near future. 

Again please email me any thoughts to jimszurgena@gmail.com 

No responses will indicate to me that there is no interest in such events any more.. 

Flamenco Show

Once again we are pleased to be able to facilitate another traditional Flamenco show at the Zurgena Theatre to be held on Saturday 22nd October at 8.0pm. 

For anyone who has not seen traditional flamenco this is a real treat and for those who have seen previous shows this incorporates new performances from the famous Heredia family, including the 7 year old star, who have featured on Spanish television. Tickets are available as  from C.A.T services Zurgena 950634388. and Almanzora Group of Friends, Albox Library ( Shelagh Copeland and Beryl Booth) 

Info and reservation also by  WHATSAPP 0034687480694.

I am sure all those who attend will have another wonderful evening. As all the previous full houses have done!

For more information on Flamenco in this link

Flamenco Article

Trips and Events

I did mention in an earlier post that, now that Covid seems not to be an issue any more,  the Town Hall is looking at organising trips etc 

Those of you who have lived here more than a few years will know that we used to have many interesting cultural trips and events. These were always a big hit with our community, involving as they often did food and wine!

One of the events which was most popular was the international food events where local Spanish ladies demonstrated how they made their favourite recipes and others from the different countries did something from theirs eg I did haggis much to the amusement of some! 

I am mentioning these things now as we are looking to get things organised for the last 9 months of this administration, as it is election time next May, at which point I will no longer be able to serve in any official capacity. 

So if you have any ideas preferences or suggestions please let me have them and where possible we will get them organised. I believe we have a small some of money left in the pot to subsidise such trips to some extent.

Land Classification for selling

As most of you probably know Zurgena managed to agree a Plan General Ordenacion Urbano (PGOU) back in 2019.

This plan meant that all houses within our municipality were given a clear legal standing and so avoided the problems many other THs had with legality. In fact it created the best legal situation for property owners as, prior to this, none of the houses built in the past 20 years in most of Spain were considered, by the regional authorities, to be on legally recognised land. For those of you who have lived here for more than a few years you will be fully aware of the issues that this resolved.

The Town Hall has been working through the complicated process of upgrading the first few hundred but it is a painfully slow process. I am awaiting clarification of what progress has been made on this and will add to this post when I get that information which hopefully will be later today or tomorrow.

Obviously for those who wish to sell their properties it is a bit of an inconvenience, to not know what or when costs may arise for their particular property. 

Most solicitors when acting for buyers, of properties on urbanizable land, are aware of the situation and usually ask for a reduction in the sale price to offset any potential costs to the new owner for consolidation of the land in the future.  In my case I accepted a reduction of €5,000. My house was on land classified as urbanisable.

A further complication arises for those houses, of which there are still a few dozen, which are classified as being on rustic land.These are houses which for various reasons cannot at this stage be incorporated into the PGOU and in these cases a good solicitor, acting for a buyer, will request that the seller obtain an  Asimilado Fuera de Ordinacion (A.F.O.) There is a complicated formula for calculating how much this document (which is obtainable from the TH) costs. I have given a breakdown below of an example of a house of 150 sq metres with a pool, garage and pergola.

House (is calculated at €600 per sq metre) so 150 sq m house = €90,000

Garage (50 sq m at €400 per sq m) = €20,000

Swimming pool 8 x 4m (32 sq m at €300 p sq m) = €9,600

Pergola (20 sq m at 150 p sq m) = €3,000

Total €122.600 

The cost of the AFO is 3% of that total 3% of €122600 = €3,678 

There is additional cost of the technician required to do the paperwork and they usually charge €500. 

So the costs of a AFO for a house on rustic land is not greatly different to the roughly estimated cost for consolidation of a house on urbanizable land.

If anyone wants to ascertain the classification of the land that their property is on just email me. 

I am returning to Spain for a week at the end of this month and will make myself available for anyone wanting to discuss anything but this will only be for a few hours one day during the week commencing 25th September but I can of course answer many things electronically. 

Esparto Exhibition

From now until 30th September there is an exhibition about Esparto and its local importance showing at the The Antique Lorry Drivers Building just up form Bar La Union. 

It is open from 1000 x 1200 and 1600 x 1800 Monday to Friday.

 

Peter Webster

 Does anyone know a Peter Webster.

All sorted now. Thanks

Endesa Work in Los Llanos and General Maintenance

 The work being conducted on Avenida Poetas in Llanos del Peral is work being carried out by Endesa to connect a new transformer to the old one to ensure a better more stable and reliable connection.

It should result a lot less interruptions of supply in that area.

As usual very little work has been done in the public areas over the summer. We do have our normal workers and a small team of young people who will be woking on various general maintenance and tidying projects around the villages over the next couple of months. At the moment they are concentrating on the schools but will then move onto public areas. 

Moon Walk (but not like Michael Jackson!)

Now our Patron Saint Festivities are over, we will continue with the scheduled activities!

 ♦️ Next Saturday (September 10) there will be a 10 km Full Moon walking trail, La Mena- Macenas, organized by the Hon.  Diputación de Almería with the collaboration of the Hon.  Zurgena Town Hall. For further details see the below poster.

 ♦️If you are interested please call 610 194 264.