GUADIARO CONTAMINATION ALERTMálaga province’s environmental agency and the provincial observatory for sustainability have issued an alert over the high levels of contamination that are currently in the waters of the Guadiaro river as it passes through the Serranía de Ronda.
The two organisations report that the river currently has dangerous levels of bacteria and sewage along with ammonia plus nitrogen. It is said these come from the waste discharged by the many pig breeding farms along the course of the Guadiaro.
The provincial deputy who is in charge of environmental matters, Esteban Martín, said the problem was aggravated by the delays in building sewage plants in the Serranía. Of the 22 municipalities in the region only Ronda, El Burgo, Parauta and Gaucín has these types of installations.
Sewage plants are under construction in Cuevas del Becerro and Algatocín but in the others they are merely at the project stage and none have the complete ‘third stage’ level of waste treatment.
MAYOR FACES SUMMONS FOR DEBT
The mayor of Ronda, Antonio Marín, is no stranger to the local court usually in cases involving town planning investigations in his municipality. Now the mayor who is also a lawyer faces a summons for over 75,000 euros which he is alleged to owe to a Ronda architect.
The debt dates back to 2007 when Marín was candidate for mayor for the Partido Andalucista – a party he has since abandoned for PSOE. The architect, Enrique Santos Buendía, says he asked him to produce designs for various projects which he used as propaganda in his campaign.
Santos Buendía presented his summons to Ronda’s number one court last week accompanied by his lawyer Daniel Ángel Harillo, who is also the secretary general of the local Partido Andalucista. The architect says that the mayor asked him to draw up the plans for a number of infrastructure projects that formed part of his re-election programme but he was never paid for the work.
Amongst the designs were the upgrading of the avenida de Málaga, a park at La Dehesa plus a municipal theatre in the former asylum. Santos Buendía says he has pressed the mayor to personally pay his debt but after waiting for three years during which Antonio Marín has allegedly not honoured his obligations he has decided to go to court.
Santos Buendía is a well known architect in Ronda where he has worked for around 32 years. He has in that period carried out a number of projects for the town hall that are of major importance. The latest are the plans for the new sports complex which currently is in its second phase of development.
TRAINS RUN AGAIN ON APRIL 23
The rail service between Ronda and Algeciras that was suspended on October 26 will re-start on April 23. The news was announced by ADIF the railway infrastructure company.
Although the major project to upgrade the line has been going on for some time the service was withdraw so that work on the tunnels and difficult terrain between Cortes de la Frontera and San Pablo de Buceite could be carried out on a round the clock basis.
This has involved relaying the track in the tunnels and creating more space for overhead cables for future electrification. That could only be achieved by lowering the depth of the tunnel requiring the track to be taken up in the interim.
Although the line will re-open on April 23 the work is far from finished but can be carried out between train services. The project to upgrade the line for the final kilometres in to Algeciras has yet to be agreed and could include taking the trains underground.
PLAZA FINISHED
The central plaza de España by the Tajo bridge is Ronda has in recent months been completely remodelled to incorporate a roundabout and to ease traffic flow through the town centre. The works cost over a million euros and in addition to the roundabout the plaza has been repaved in attractive stone with new lighting plus metallic furnishing to create a spacious square.
FARMERS WOES
Over 300 residents of the rural Ronda la Vieja zone held a demonstration on Thursday to demand the town hall, Málaga province and the regional government takes immediate action to repair the roads and lanes of the area. All were badly damaged by the winter’s rains. Some roads are not merely eroded but have collapsed leading to some areas being completely cut off.
