Province under yellow storm warning for heavy rain

Forecast for Algeciras
from our Weather Widget
(on the sidebar)

CÁDIZ The province is one of 17 in the whole country under a yellow storm alert because of the probability of heavy rain and thunderstorms, according to AEMET (State Weather Agency). The other provinces are: Almería, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, Málaga, Sevilla, Teruel, Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Toledo, Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Ibiza and Formentera. Our own AccuWeather link for Algeciras is quite clear about it. It turns out that temperatures are not expected to drop much as a result of any storms. For those who are visiting the area: you should know that our summer storms can reach tropical dimensions, with heavy, unexpected downpours. Golfers should NOT stay on the course, either. Storm alerts are graded yellow (low), orange (medium) and red (high).

Lightning strikes a saint

(Photo: europasur.es)

CHICLANA Earlier this month the 17th century marble statue of a saint fell from its perch fifteen metres by the bell tower of La Soledad church on the road to the old cemetery, after being struck by lightning. The Local Police and the Bomberos (fire brigade) were called in by local residents when they heard the very loud crash that followed that of the thunder storm that came through shortly after midnight. The neighbours say it was lucky nobody was passing underneath at the time, though there was some damage to cars parked in the street. The image was destroyed beyond repair, but the fire brigade experts agreed that the bell tower had not been damaged and was in no danger of collapse.

New truancy regulations came into effect on February 21

"... and then, what?"

Fines range from €60 to €3,000

CÁDIZ (Province) New regulations on truancy came into force in the province when it was published in the province's official bulletin (BOP) a week ago (when CampoPulse was still 'removed' by Godgle). The salient part of it makes parents liable to fines for allowing their children to be absent from school. These can range from €60 to €750 for leve (light) infringements, from €650 to €1,500 for grave (serious) ones, and from €1,501 to €3,000 for muy graves (very serious). Among the leves is not registering the child for school, not trying to get him/her to school or not acting on suggestions or requirements of social services. The other, more serious fines are based on recurrence. Nevertheless, and although the new rules don't regulate it as such, the text does mention that before any official files (expedientes) are opened, a series of actions should take place, including social work and community involvement aimed at a solution to the problem.

Military hospital has 400 employees for an average 2.5 patients daily

A vast empty property

SAN FERNANDO The Ministry of Defense has admitted the proportion of patients to staff is unsustainable. The Hospital Básico de la Defensa-San Carlos, located on La Isla, cost over €25million in 2012. Medical staff at the hospital is principally military - 46 physicians, eight nurses, four pharmacists and two psychologists - but personnel consists of another 351 workers. Occupation is just 0.49% of capacity. These are the official figures from Defence. The fact is that the ministry has little interest in keeping the hospital going any longer, so it is likely to close soon,>>>

Carnival celebration dates

CÁDIZ PROVINCE The photo on the left illustrates the popularity of the Carnaval in the city of Cádiz. The whole province holds this annual celebration. We have created a Google Calendar listing the dates for celebrations scheduled in various towns and villages of the area. We may well have missed some out but that's only because the information is not available or because celebrations are not held at all. If the place where you live is holding a Carnaval this year, please get the dates and send them in via comment below. CLICK HERE FOR ACCESS TO THE CALENDAR. 

15 charged with using Food Bank aid to feed elderly patients

One of the homes involved

They also allegedly used deceased pensioners' cards to obtain medicines and other items valued at over €9,000

CÁDIZ The Guardia Civil's Operation Pócima, which continues open, has so far resulted in charges against fifteen people involved in a fraudulent scheme run by several private residential homes for the elderly costing up to €1,800 a month per pensioner. Apparently, the patients were being fed with food obtained from Food Bank charities, from which a total of 140 tons were taken and distributed to various homes throughout the province. In addition, the fifteen are accused of using pensioners' discount and health cards belonging to 66 people who had died, which is how the scheme came to light.>>>

Rota mayor accused in corruption case

With the previous mayor, she is also charged with malfeasance and embezzlement

ROTA The PP Mayor of Rota, María Eva Corrales, and her predecessor in the office and present Vice-Mayor, Lorenzo Sánchez, of the Roteños Unidos party, have been summoned to appear in court on November 29 to make their statements. They are charged with malfeasance and embezzlement in a case that will also bring local builder and developer Felipe Castellano to court. The charges came as the result ofYOU WILL SOON BE UNABLE

21 year old was allegedly killed with 14 stabs by her mother

The funeral

Isabel was buried on Tuesday in Chipiona

CHIPIONA (Prov. of  Cádiz) (Agencies) She died on Monday of the 14 stabs she supposedly received from her mother, who was arrested and taken to the mental health unit of the local hospital, and will be taken to court today, if her doctors allow it. Only one of the stabs could have been fatal, according to Guardia Civil reports; they are continuing their investigations to obtain as much proof of the incident as possible. The incident took place on Monday morning, when around eleven o'clock, a waiter at a nearby venta found mother and daughter in a car parked in front of their house in a rural area known as Pago del Abulagar. The daughter was dead. It would appear that a not unusal argument ended in a tragedy this time. Neighbours say that the relationship between them was not good; they argued often and heatedly. The mother, identified by the initials R.D., was separated from her husband and lived with her daughter, who, say some, could have had mental health problems ('problema de nervios' is the term often used).

Ten municipalities of Cádiz owe over €700 per inhabitant

Jimena de la Frontera
(c)2012 Alberto Bullrich

At the 'good' end of the scale are Jimena, Algar, Chipiona and Zahara de la Sierra

CÁDIZ (Agencies) Ten of the 44 municipalities that make up the province of Cádiz are in debt to the tune of over €700 per inhabitant, according to the latest 2011 figures. The worst debtors are Cádiz,  the capital city itself, Los Barrios, Algodonales and San Roque. The information comes from the Ministerio de Hacienda y Administraciones Públicas (Treasury, for short-ish), which publishes the 'live' debt of every municipality in Spain every year. The figures reveal that on December 31, 2011, the municipalities of the province owe almost €663m, which is>>>

Overwhelmed social courts make appointments for 2014

The Algeciras courthouse

PROV. OF CÁDIZ (Agencies) Spain's Social Courts (Juzgados de lo Social) are what in other countries would be called labour courts because they deal with employment matters (e.g. redundancies, union disputes with employers, demands for payment, Social Security and others). Whatever they may be called, the ones in the province are completely overwhelmed by the amount of cases arising principally from present employment circumstances, including officially recognized and unrecognized redundancy plans for a large number of companies. So much so that it is impossible to get a court date before January 2014. But it is not just a matter of statistics: to be made redundant means a sign-off payment from the employer and a trip to the unemployment office for the benefits, but what if the company is bankrupt and hasn't paid up your Social Security costs? That means that to get some money one has to go through the Social Court - in the meantime, what?>>>

Cadiz has enough water for another five or six years

Guadalcacín reservoir

CÁDIZ Even if it doesn't rain a lot for some time, the province has enough water to last for the next five or six years, according to the Agencia Andaluza del Agua (Andalucia Water Agency). What it calls a 'hydrological year' ends on September 30 and it has been particularly generous in filling the ten reservoirs within Cádiz to an acceptable degree although not quite reaching last year's level. They are at an average of 83.9% of their capacity, which menas that there is enough water to supply cities, industry and agriculture alike. The province's main reservoir at Guadalcacín is at 82.6% of its capacity, some distance from its record capacity of 91.8% of March last year, which prompted emergency plans to release water, an event that had not been seen in 16 years, but was not necessary. The other four largest reservoirs in the province are similarly full: Zahara-El Gastor is at 98%, while those at Los Hurones, Bornos and Barbate hold 81%.

Roads cut off thanks to storms

PROVINCE/CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR (Agencies) Several roads in the mountains were closed off yesterday because of the torms, The heavy rain also affected road near th provincial coastline. Emergency teams were called out numeous times throughout the day and the bomberos attended calls in Sanlúcar, Chiclana, Medina, El Puerto, San Fernando, Jerez, Algeciras, La Línea, Tarifa, Arcos, Villamartín, Ubrique, Benalup, Olvera and Conil, though the most impotant were in Sanlúcar and San Fernando. Another significant detail is th amount of rain that was measured in Grazalema: 82 litres per m2.

Helicopter in Alcalá was part of French drug running operation

ALCALÁ DE LOS GAZULES (Source & photo: EuropaSur) Local residents thought something 'strange' was going on, especially at night. They could hear what turned out to be a helicopter that was kept under a blue tarpaulin in an apparently abadoned farm building near the road to San José del Valle. It is just part of a massive drug running operation based in France, and this chopper is what they used to bring hashish  and cocaine over from Morocco. The pilots would earn €1000 per kilo of the stuff and would sometimes get up to half a million for a night's work. The Policía Nacional broke down the door to the building last Tuesday as part of

'Tamborada' produces over 3,000 kilos of rubbish on beach

BARBATE (Agencies) "About 10,000" people came together last weekend for a tamborada (tambor = drum, so 'drum-in') on the beach at Caños de Meca (photo), near Babate. The authorities had not allowed the congregation but say it was impossible to stop. In any case, the Mayor of Barbate, Rafael Quirós, said that some three thousand kilos of rubbish were removed from the beach and the surrounding area, a task made more difficult because the 'drum party' that started on Saturday evening, went on until midday on Sunday. (Prospero note: Pity I missed it...)

Junta backtracks on beach development

PROVINCE - VEJER - LA JANDA

The Junta de Andalucía has admitted allegations by the Council of Vejer against planning restrictions at La Janda and will now allow construction of 300 homes and at least 450 hotel rooms at La Mangueta, a stretch that is between the villages of El Palmar and Zahora. A stretch of beach of some 500m is to remain protected. The matter has turned full circle: three months ago, the area was classified as 'specially protected' but the new definition is labelled 'of special tourism opportunity'. Mangueta is one of the very few remaining 'virgin beaches' on the Costa de la Luz, an area that has until now remained unbuilt, although it is surrounded by innumerable illegal buildings stretching from Barbate to the West.

New Tarifa port could attract mid-size cruise ships

(Agencies) Plans for the renovation of the port at Tarifa could include mooring for mid-size cruise ships, according to Suncruise Andalucía, the association that brings together the port authorities of Huelva, Sevilla, Bay of Cádiz, Bay of Algeciras, Málaga, Motril and Almería, as well as the Chamber of Commerce of Cádiz and the Public Ports Agency of Andalucía, which met recently to discuss the Tarifa project. However, even if the Department of the Environment gives the okay with a positive environmental impact report, the original plans only offer>

€4 million top-end tourism campaign 'a dismal failure'

Several media reports are criticising the central government for spending €4m on a project to attract the upper end of the tourism market. Called Privilege Spain, the campaign aims to attract wealthy tourists from the UK, Germany, France and Italy to the Cádiz-Jerez area, as well as to La Rioja and the Basque Country. An elaborate -and expensive- website (image), however, fails to come with an English translation. Conceived in 2008 and launched early in 2009, the campaign has failed to attract a single reservation.

Campo rain is over twice the average

(Photo: CP file) Average rainfall over the first 18 weeks of the current hydrological year (that begins in October) in the CdeG is 600 litres per square metre. At present it is just over 1,500, two and a half times the norm, according to Agencia Estatal de Meteorología. The Campo is where it has rained over average the most in the province of Cádiz, followed by Grazalema (from 1,100 to 2,200 l/m2) and Jerez (390 to 600). But records on daily downpours have not been broken yet, says the agency, although these are between 150 and 250% over that average. The Bay of Algeciras is registering 700 l/m2 when the average is 400. Last week's rain in the CdeG twice (Monday and Thursday) went over the mark of 40 l/m2 used by insurance companies to accept coverage for rain damage.

New ORANGE ALERT for province (8.32pm: UPDATED TO ALL OF ANDALUCÍA)

We received a new weather warning from Jimena's Protección Civil. YELLOW ALERT for wind tomorrow Monday, December 21, and an ORANGE ALERT  for rain tomorrow and Tuesday, December 22. The warning has gone out to the whole province, as you can see on the map. Included in the e-mail were a series of precautions to be taken just in case, translated below. Up to 80 ltrs/m2 is expected in some places.>