TWO ARRESTED OVER BIZARRE TAJO DEATHBy David Eade
The official statement is hard to believe but the National Police in Ronda have arrested a 63-year-old woman and her 36-year-old son after his girlfriend fell to her death in Ronda’s Tajo gorge and they did nothing to help her.
The tragedy occurred in the middle of last October but now the police have charged the pair with not helping the woman or seeking help from the emergency services.
The woman fell to her death from the balcony of a property in which she had lived with her boyfriend for several months overlooking the Tajo gorge. According to her partner at around 2.30 in the morning they had a row and she disappeared from the apartment. He heard a bang from the balcony door and went out to find her bag, her shoes and mobile phone.
It is at this point that the story changes from a tragedy to the bizarre. The boyfriend immediately phoned his mother to tell her what happened. She told him to be calm, to go to bed and sleep. Both seem totally unconcerned about what had happened to the girlfriend. In the morning his mother arrived, cleaned his house, looked down from the windows over the Tajo and almost certainly saw the body of the girlfriend.
They then went shopping and it was only afterwards that they called at the police station to report what had happened. The emergency services then raced to the scene and although they found the girl she had died around eight hours before help was summoned.
ARRIATE BY-PASS TO TAKE 4,000 VEHICLESThe village of Arriate is the only municipality in the Serranía de Ronda to show strong growth in recent years whilst all the others are suffering from depopulation. For this it can largely thank its closeness to the town of Ronda to which it has become almost a suburb.
However the main street of Arriate is still that of a small village with barely room for two cars to pass and in one section vehicles can only travel in one direction at a time. Hence the announcement that the new by-pass will shortly be started will bring relief to a population that sees over 4,000 vehicles pass their doors each day.
The Andalucía minister of public works, Luis García Garrido, has inaugurated the start of the works that will take traffic from Setenil de las Bodegas to Ronda by by-passing Arriate. The sum of 5.3 million euros has been assigned to the project that should take 18 months to complete. It will also create 93 jobs, over half of them directly.
The by-pass will connect the existing roads, the MA-7403 (Arriate – Puerto del Monte – Setenil) and the A-367 (Ardales – Ronda). It will run to the east of Arriate and cover six kilometres. Currently large lorries cannot negotiate the centre of Arriate and have to take a 19 kilometre diversion via Cuevas del Becerro but they will be saved that journey once the by-pass is operational. It will be a dual carriageway and the rural roads connecting with it will also be upgraded.
The new road is all part of the Andalucía road plan 2004-2013 (Mas Cerca) that also includes the new road connecting Ronda with Ardales that opened on Monday. The minister stressed the Arriate by-pass would connect the Sierras de Málaga and Cádiz with the coast allowing for increased economic activity between the zones. After the by-pass has been completed the next major infrastructure project in the area will be the laying of the high-speed AVE train line between Antequera and Ronda.
LOW TAKINGS
Ronda received around the same level of visitors over the Easter holidays as previous years with hotel and rural houses said to have a 90 per cent occupancy level. However the incomes of hotels, bars and restaurants are down as visitors have spent markedly less due to the effects of the economic recession. Visitors have been looking for bargain prices for stays and food.
NO BIRTHS
The fears over the aging populations in the Serrania de Ronda have been reinforced after four villages reported no births in 2007. The municipalities of Benalauría, Júcar, Parauta and Pujerra are smaller and older as a result as there have been deaths and people moving out to seek work elsewhere. Also suffering are Alpandeire with one birth and Jubrique and Cartajima that recorded two.
DOLE TOLL
The March total of unemployed in Ronda has risen by 76 people bringing the total to 3,913 compared with 2,726 in the same month last year. The construction industry is still the worst affected although the recession has also been felt in the hotel and restaurant trade plus amongst local businesses. Women account for the highest total with 2,012 compared with 1,901 men.
COURT DATE
The Ronda court has set a date in May for the municipal secretary – accountant of Cuevas del Becerro to appear in the case in that he is alleged to have taken 340,000 euros of town hall funds. He has been in the post for 15 years and is said to have used blank cheques signed by the mayor and his deputy for his own use.
BACTERIA ATTACK
The regional government’s environment ministry has employed bacteria to destroy the 28 tonnes of diesel that spilled from a Repsol tanker that recently crashed in to a stream on the Cuevas del Becerro to Setenil road. There were fears that the oil could have caused major environmental damage by seeping into the Peñarrubia reservoir but the bacteria has broken down the hydrocarbon.
CHURCH RESTORED
The work to restore the ancient Santa Cecilia church in Ronda will be completed on April 29. Over 600,000 euros has been spent on the work to the church locally known as ‘Los Descalzos’ – the shoeless after the religious community that served there. The restoration has been completed in two phases starting in 2007 and includes the former Convento Trinitario de Los Descalzos.
FARM MARQUEE
Following the decision of Ronda’s mayor to postpone this year’s Real Feria de Mayo the town hall’s agriculture delegation says a marquee dedicated to the sector will be set up instead in the San Francisco quarter for farmers to use. The May Fair is the oldest in Andalucía but the mayor insists the 200,000 euros designated for the event will be spent on the unemployed instead.
ROAD OPEN
The Ronda to Málaga journey has just got shorter after the new stretch of the A-367 was opened on Monday. The new road between the Venta del Córdobes and Ardales has cost 12 million euros and has been funded by the regional government. It covers seven kilometres and apart from improving road safety should reduce travel times between Ronda and Málaga to one hour.
