THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS 2011

As we approach the end of another year, and as we approach the 400th edition of The Leader, we thought we would take a look back at some of the major stories we covered during the last year.

Our first edition of the year ran with the smoking ban that came into force across Spain. Although controversial and there were many reports and prosecution, much of the hype died down as the year went along with hoteliers and bar owners actually reporting that there was no decrease in their trade after all, with the odd exception.

Planning ahead, we looked at the tourist fair FITUR, in which the Costa Blanca was well represented as a holiday destination, with the forthcoming Easter celebrations being a key part of the attractive presentation.

Towards the end of January, we focused on the work of the Royal British Legion in Spain and the work that they do to directly benefit ex-service personnel who live here in Spain. We reported on former Sapper Alan Stockton, who had been given back his mobility and life when the RBL donated a mobility scooter to him after his long battle with diabetes.

February soon came around and we started the month with a statement from the town planning office in San Miguel, whereas Sergio Correas spoke exclusively to The Leader and promised that drinking water would be provided to residents in some of the surrounding areas of the town, within two years.

With local election soon approaching, it was inevitable that local politics would be playing a very key role in the news this year. The long standing mayor of Torrevieja had already announced that he would be standing down, and so, we looked at his future replacement at the head of Torrevieja, a former councillor for culture, who was indeed eventually elected mayor, Eduardo Dolón.

February continued and saw more positive potential during some difficult times, with the statistics released that the building industry was starting to show signs of recovery. Last year had seen an all time low in the sector, with just 123 building licenses being issued, but at the start of February, we saw a growth of 12%, which continued throughout the year.

The last weekend of February was an annual event being celebrated, that of the feast of San Cristobal, combined with the coming together of military forces, old and new, marking International Veterans´ Day, where some 10,000 people visited static displays in Torrevieja, with a variety of minor events also occurring to mark the celebrations.

March didn´t start off looking too good for the central government in Spain, but their loss could well have been to the benefit of the residents of Torrevieja, when The Leader revealed that Torrevieja had lost 150 million euro in lost revenue, due to the fact that the government still refused to allow the city to claim an official status of being a tourist destination.

Towards the middle of March we started to feature action by a company that would reappear in a variety of forms throughout the year. From cut backs to threats to corruption and scandal, this was the unfolding story of airline Ryanair. The company was demanding the European Union take steps to ensure that passengers would not suffer at the hands of threatened strikes in protest of the airport authority´s intention to privatise some of their functions. It later became ironic when it was Ryanair themselves who withdrew flights from the airport in their own protest.

March came to a close as we had an in depth look at the work on the La Zenia Boulevard shopping centre. A new retail site that would be the largest around, offer thousands of jobs and make the La Zenia location well known for visitors and residents alike. Albeit with a little disruption later in the year as work on the surrounding roads and infrastructure was carried out.

In our first April feature, we turned our attention back to the Royal British Legion in Spain. This time by celebrating the 90 years they have been in existence, helping ex service people, with a huge gala concert in Alicante. All Angels, Ruth Lorenzo and Just Brass were the top of the bill, whilst many more appeared to the packed auditorium under a headline ‘A Concert United by One Cause'.

It was the second week in April when we went back to Ryanair, but this time featuring a story that would dominate the late summer headlines. It was in April that we first discovered that, the company had threatened to withdraw up to 80% of their passenger traffic from the new airport at Alicante, El Altet. This was due to their instance that they used steps to load and unload at the newly refurbished airport, rather than the covered walkways that the airport was insisting on using on the grounds of both safety and comfort.

This may have been the first time we featured this story, but it would certainly not be the last. The latest being that AENA, the airport authority, have compromised by offering Ryanair the opportunity to disembark on the apron and they will transfer passengers to the terminal by bus.

It was party time in the middle of April, when we followed the staff from Exite Radio, who were holding a party to celebrate the annual event of St George´s Day. This year though, there was a whole week of events, in two different locations, with entertainers, singers, dancers, market stalls and more all coming together to ‘Party For St George'.

Of course, Easter is another reason to celebrate in the first half of the year and our next front page story was dedicated to just that. In particular, we were looking at the Costaleros, one of the groups that march carrying an extremely heavy statue through the streets during the festivities and celebrations of the religious fiesta.

Already now, we are in to May. Royal Wedding Fever gripped the UK and the same could be said about the expat community in Spain, as many a resident took to the streets and celebrated in traditional style, complete with bunting and banners, so we went to the party too, sending reporters to as many different locations to see just how you were celebrating.

The second story on our front page in May saw us look back to 2004. There was a riot in Elche in protest against Chinese imports and how they were seen to be damaging to the traditional industries such as shoe making. In the story this year, we saw that 28 of those people responsible for the riots were sent to prison, serving a variety of sentences, but seen to be justice finally prevailing, albeit 6 years after the event.

In the middle of May we were talking bowls. In particular, the Spanish National Bowls Championship that took place at the Vistabella Bowls club which started on Friday 13th May, unlucky for some maybe, but with 350 competitors taking to the green, the challenge was on and soon kicked off to prove a gripping tournament.

The latter end of May brought the elections that a number of people had been preparing for. One of the biggest shocks locally was that the Partido Popular, the ruling party of Orihuela, were ousted and a new coalition group took over the government. Once they had managed to work out exactly how to unite and form a government, but in a manner that would prove unstable throughout the rest of the year.

Another story that we covered at the very end of May was the protest being made by parents at a local school who were disappointed by the broken promises they had been given. Whilst the children were having to attend lessons in crammed portacabins, despite promises that a brick building would soon be provided on the site. Education was visited a number of times later in the year too, as the value of education was clear, but some saw the speed of progress to be far too slow.

June brought us a brand new crisis to cover, the infamous ‘cucumber scandal' that saw vegetables from Spain accused of carrying food poisoning. In what some people considered to be a rash decision, Europe closed borders to Spanish imports, but were later seeing red as they had to pay compensation for wrongly accusing Spain as being the source. Some of the compensation that was later taken back as fines after the Spanish government failed to make the payments to those affected in time.

There was a huge military presence off the coast in June too, as many different ships, from many different countries, came to try to rescue a stricken submarine that lay on the ocean floor. Everybody was rescued successfully, which was a testament to those involved, as the event was staged as an exercise to prove if such a rescue could be carried out, should the worse case ever occur in the waters of the Mediterranean.

We also went back to politics in June, as the new mayor-elect of Torrevieja told us his story and why the city of Torrevieja means so much to him. Eduardo Dolón spoke about his family tree of four generations in the city and exactly why such a young politician, at age 35, was to be a refreshing change for Torrevieja.

We stuck with the city of Torrevieja for our last headline of the month, partly visiting a previous headline of growth and development of buildings, but this time with the announcement that a derelict hotel in the centre of the city, which had closed down in 2008, was set to reopen this year. Hotel Fontana, which was originally opened in 1983, had become an attraction for the homeless during its closure, but was now set to turn back the ‘Timer of Decay'.

In the second half of the year we went back to looking at agriculture. This time at La Mata, where farmers were complaining about the environmental policies being unfair to them, as they were unable to enforce controls over animals and insect infestation due to their location within a protected national park. Later in the year, an ingenious incentive to control birds was devised when the Torrevieja town hall have the farmers confiscated CD´s and DVD´s which were to be hung of their plants as a deterrent to birds.

We took to the waves in the second weekend in July, when The Leader was given exclusive access to the stunning cruise ship, Independence of the Seas, as she was docked in Alicante. Speaking to the Captain and taking a tour of the vessel, we gave you our take on this splendid piece of nautical architecture.

A trip to the beach is often on the cards in July, and we are no different. This time though, we were looking at the beach at Cala de la Mosca, which had now been cleaned of debris and waste, which had been promised by various officials for the 4 years previous, and was now considered as being ´safe´. Which was fortunate given that many of those who had protested previously were now in government and able to make the change.

As we moved towards the end of July, we had another great story about how the future of Spain is looking brighter. This time with the official announcement that the rumoured Paramount Theme Park in Spain was not only confirmed as being built, but was also on the cards to be completed and operational a lot earlier than was originally hoped.

It was inevitable that politics would feature this year, with the local elections in the first half, then the national elections in the second, in August we were given an insight into part of the newly formed coalition government of Orihuela. In particular, we saw an announcement that a number of the councillors had agreed to a pay cut of 15%, a compromise that was reached against the 30% reduction that was proposed, and would be in place until December 2011. Then, with the new budgets for next year, it would be reviewed once again.

Summer was soon upon us, the influx of tourists from the UK, Europe and from inland areas of Spain brought thousands more people to the coast. That prompted a wave of activity from town councils who were keen to arrange events to entertain their visitors. We ran a story about one such event that took over the Orihuela Costa. There was everything from beach volleyball, music and dance to re-enactments of historic events with five days cram packed with entertainment.

Exite Radio made the headlines in August once again, this time with the announcement of a brand new show for Sunday mornings. After many years of broadcasting a popular religious show on the radio, George T Moore was to return to his native Ireland. That paved the way for a new era in Christian broadcasting, bringing a new and vibrant show to the airways, presented and produced by the Torrevieja Christian Fellowship (TCF).

The Orihuela Costa branch of the Royal British Legion were next to feature, when The Leader went along to look at a brand new garden of remembrance that had been created to `Remember Those Who Fell', along with an overview of the area covered by this popular and unique group.

As August came to a close, it was time to look back on the summer, and reflect on the fact that it had actually been a success. Official figures released by the tourism department showed that some 32.3 million people came to Spain between January and July, with July showing an increase of 7.2%, with a total of 7.5 million foreign tourists joining those from inland Spain who holidayed on the coast.

September started off in dramatic style when The Leader newspaper made the front page. Fortunately only suffering superficial and smoke damage, a fire in an electrical switch room of our building caused an evacuation onto the street, whilst a feisty Guardia Civil officer was busy issuing parking tickets to those involved in the evacuation, and trying to force people back towards the burning building. Fortunately nobody was hurt and we were back up and running very quickly, thanks to the dedication and commitment of everybody who worked around the clock to restore power to the building.

As autumn started to take hold, we featured Exite Radio once again, this time with their brand new schedule to take us to the winter. With more varied content than ever before, more presenters, more music and features on specialist music and styles, this is one of the reasons Exite Radio maintains popularity, by always adapting to what the listener wants.

Education returned to the headlines too, returning to previously featured complaints about a school that was formed of prefabricated portacabins, parents held another protest when their children returned to school after the summer, only to find that some of the buildings had been removed. This meant even more kids crammed into the existing blocks and an overall lack of basic facilities conducive to an educational environment. The situation took a political turn when parents expressed their disappointment that the new government members that they had elected on the promise of reform were now nowhere to be seen.

Our last front page in September featured another story that we would revisit. A 76 year old evacuee, Mark Harrington, told his story of how he had used the internet to go ‘Back in Time' and trace the people and places that had affected his life when he had been evacuated from Dagenham in 1941. The story would later feature in the local newspapers in the UK and led to a follow up story where The Leader were taken along to meet the people he had found.

After the ‘good news' end to September, we entered October with a story that had spread panic through much of the expat community, with the revelation that the local police were starting to clamp down on bars and clubs that play loud music without the appropriate licenses. ‘Police! Stop Destroying Our Livelihoods' was the headline as entertainers feared for their future and bar owners were facing huge fines. However, it was later revealed from official channels that all action that had taken place was as a direct result of complaints from members of the public.

The situation also revealed huge deficiencies in licensing application, management and fulfilment, which town halls promised to correct in time for the 2012 season, creating an audit and database of exactly what licensing commitment every venue had.

Beauty came to the coast in October too, with the Miss Intercontinental 2011 competition being held in Orihuela and with international beauty queens being given guided tours of the whole area, in a bid to show off the sights of the Costa Blanca and thus promote tourism. Jessica Hartman from Denver, Colorado was crowned winner of the competition, which later turned up in the news following accusations that the only real financial beneficiary of the competition was closely related to Pedro Mancebo, a senior member of the Orihuela council who had organised the event.

In the middle of October we went to Murcia. This time to focus on the 120 British ex service personnel who were taking part in a huge parade through the city, before taking part in a spectacular re-enactment, along with international members of military forces.

The next front page feature was rubbish! Quite literally, as we featured the start of a new campaign on the Orihuela Costa to clamp down on litter and rubbish in a ´Clean Up the Costa' campaign. Focussing on informing residents when the best time to put large items of waste out in the street to coincide with collection times, thus avoiding rubbish laying dormant for long periods of time, removing and fining companies who put unsightly posters on street furniture and fixtures and also fining companies who place flyers on windscreens of cars, which inevitably end up as litter on the street. This was just the start of what would prove to be a long battle, but a battle that would prove positive results.

In our last front page of October, Ryanair were making the headlines once more. As we had featured earlier in the year, the promise of them withdrawing from Alicante airport came true, cancelling a total of 31 routes and reducing the frequency on another 27. The company was not prepared to negotiate with the airport despite the affects that the company had already pointed out. We know how the saga continues, but it is yet to be resolved.

From the air we went to sea in our first November front page. The Volvo Ocean race featured heavily on the sporting calendar this year, not less because of speculation of a ‘phoney war' and months of meticulous planning the event was a huge success.

It was also inevitable that we returned to feature military history in November. With the 11th November this year offering the unique 11/11/11 combination, we marked how the ‘Community Unites in Respect of Fallen Heroes'.

We returned to the air in late November, or at least to the ground, with the announcement that the government will be closing San Javier airport to passenger traffic, with flights being transferred to the brand new airport facility at Corvera. The new airport will be one of the biggest in the area and is located only a short drive away, in the heart of one of the most up and coming regions which will also include the Paramount Theme Park.

The last November headline was bowls once again. This time, the European Bowls Championship came to the Costa. With the events throughout the year both in Spain and across Europe, the announcement that the 2013 European Team Championship, one of the most prestigious championships in the bowling calendar, was coming to Spain was considered the icing on the cake for the bowls community this year.

December dawned and we started with environmental concerns. The Orihuela council had announced that they would be blocking off certain parts of the dunes on the coast, in a bid to protect the natural ecosystems that the Orihuela Costa is home to. Commencing with an agreed plan to fence of and protect one area of natural beauty, they would spread the strategy into other places once agreements were reached with the Valencia government.

Charity efforts were also key during December. We featured Karl and Helen Ward in December, after we had first spoke about them in May this year, as they had now returned from a charity cycle ride in Vietnam. After 7 months and 700 kilometres, they had raised well over six thousand euro to go towards the Help for Heroes charity.

Charity also featured in the middle of December, this time of a direct action type and very much home grown. The Leader had been running a campaign throughout December, collecting gifts to donate to the children of local orphanages. As the time to distribute them dawned, there were over hundreds of gifts, selection boxes and money, all of which had been donated by you and all of which were now going directly to make the difference to a child that may have faced this Christmas lonely, underprivileged and needy. Now, thanks to the generosity of The Leader readers, Christmas brought a smile to many, many people.

And, with that, we bring to a close another year of headlines. Of course, we have only touched on the top stories of the year here. There are many more in The Leader newspaper and even more on the website www.theleader.info. We pride ourselves on bringing the best news direct to you and we are honoured that you appreciate the efforts that the team go to in achieving that aim.

From all of us to all of you, we now look ahead to the next year of news, when our principle team of journalists, writers, contributors, photographers, artists, sales, administration and support staff all come together to make sure that we always deliver the results that our readers and our advertisers want, making sure that we always maintain our position as The Leader.

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