The spokesman for the municipal group Los Verdes, José Manuel Dolon, criticised the Torrevieja Council last week for "copying" the motion originally filed by his party in 2008, requesting advancement of the retirement ages for members of the Policia Locale, but he nevertheless welcomed the proposal.

Dolon said that although the Partido Popular have been dragging their feet for many years his party 'welcomes this change of their position" adding that Los Verdes will continue to support the advancement of the retirement age for local police due to the conditions in which they continually work and the risks that they run.

He said that the retirement age should be advanced because officers, like everyone else, gradually suffer a loss in their physical abilities as they get older, which can have a detrimental effect in how they carry out their duties.

The environmental spokesman said that six former councilors from the previous government had also supported the Green Party motion when it was first submitted, Domingo Soler, Eduardo Dolón, José Antonio Sánchez, Dolores Albaladejo, Gil Rebollo, Agustina Esteve, Javier Montoro, Joaquín Albaladejo, Francisco Moreno y and Daniel Plaza who had resigned.

He said that the Policia Locale carry out many of the same functions as other members of the State Security Forces so his proposal had been nothing more than bringing the retirement age into parity with them.

The motion filed a few days ago by the Peoples group, will be discussed and quite probably approved at a future plenary session, although José Manuel Dolon said that it should not be dealt with in a plenary session.

He urged the Secretariat of State for Security and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), to propose a legislative amendment to the Congress of Deputies to enable the matter to be adopted by all regional forces.

This week saw the inauguration of part of the green corridor of the Orihuela Costa, the “Corredor Verde de la Costa”, which saw the residents of the Valencia urbanisation near Villamartin have a green area officially opened, that provides ...

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The AHSA association which looks after the interests of the wetlands of the Southern Alicante area, along with the Southeast naturalists association ANSE, and ASE friends of Sierra de Escalona, have collectively presented arguments this week against t...

Although Torrevieja's indoor market has been firmly established at ‘La Plasa' since it was first opened in the town in 1995 stallholders only occupy the bottom floor of a spacious 3 storey building.

The upper two floors of the municipal building have now been abandoned for 15 years.

Although a number of the pitches currently lay empty moves are in hand, albeit via a government managed tender system, to fill them with new traders in the coming months.

But the local Green Party want to see rather more. They say that the upper two floors should also be filled rather than lying empty as they currently are. Although quite what they should be filled with is open to discussion.

They have asked the Torrevieja Councillor for trade, Agustina Esteve, to raise the matter at the next full meeting of the council with a suggestion that a study be launched as to how the floor space might be used to accommodate commercial activities.

The Green Party say that this is a "priority" matter and "vital" to the successful future of the business sector in the center of Torrevieja and that every effort should be made to see its reopening in the near future.

A spokesman said "We believe this is a matter of prime importance, both for the revitalization of trade, and for the economic, social and environmental success in the city centre.

The longer these two floors are allowed to remain empty the more impoverished the building will become and the more difficult it will be to establish 'business recovery” which would quickly become a dynamic element of the town of Torrevieja.

Over two containers of solid waste were collected last Sunday by more than 150 volunteers and divers who had gathered at Cala Ferris to clean up the shoreline and the seabed in one of the most ecological locations in the area. Prior to starting work ...

With the aim of saving as much municipal money as possible, the town hall of Pilar de la Horadada has successfully saved half a million euro off their annual electricity bill.

Councillor for Infrastructure and the Environment, Iván Romero, said that despite the rises in electricity rates, the municipality has achieved these savings through investment by the council in the review and optimization of electricity tariffs, in the renewal of street lighting and shutting down points of light in areas where there are no buildings.

“In 2011, the council paid more than a million and a half euro in lighting of the town, now this electric bill is about nine hundred thousand euro”, according to the councillor. In 2011, the process of changing old fashioned lights for energy efficient LED illumination began, work which still continues to this day, “an improvement in energy efficiency that has an investment of only 430,000 euro by the municipality”, he continued.

Moreover, Romero stressed that this intervention has made Pilar de la Horadada a pioneering municipality in the province of Alicante in the installation of LED lighting, because they have now been installed in almost all areas of both Pilar de la Horadada and Torre de la Horadada.

The councillor also announced that the installation of LED lighting will be extended to the area of the old town of Torre de la Horadada, through the grant requested from the provincial government of Alicante through their Energy Savings Plan.

The government team, led by José Fidel Ros, stressed that the full proposal is part of “an initiative aimed at saving and environmental sustainability”" a move that was supported by all councillors of the municipal corporation in the plenary.

Passengers using the Alicante tram network have contributed to saving the equivalent CO2 emissions of nearly 60 million private cars. A statement by operator FGV promotes the environmental advantages of using public transport, which also saves some 35...