Lorca Aid

The Royal British Legion have collected material for the victims of the Lorca tragedy, who are still, two weeks on, living in tents erected by the Spanish army. Blankets, sleeping bags and other material kindly donated by well-wishers. Ángel Medina helped in the organisation of the hand-over to the Lorca emergency authorities today.

An Endorsement

Jenny Hayes was Nº3 on our list four years ago and dropped by to visit a few days ago. Jenny remains a Mojácar resident (and voter) but is working in Mazarrón as a vet. Most party leaders from four years ago are either no longer active or are in another party entirely - leave alone the rest of their followers. Here at Ciudadanos Europeos, we believe in continuity and regular meetings. So does Jenny.

Saturday Meeting

Several dozen party supporters met the Candidates yesterday for a chat and an aperitif at the Hotel Continental. Mariano Novo (Nº 4 on the list) told of his interest in a yacht marina for Mojácar's coast and his support for bowling greens and other sports facilities. Mariano is from Madrid and has lived in Mojácar for fifteen years. Jana (Nº 3) told of her commitment to seeing things through and impressed us with her sincerity. She is from Hamburg and has lived here for twelve years. Jana speaks fluent English, Spanish and, of course, German. Lenox (Nº 2) explained how we must support a party that is neither 'business as usual' nor confrontational. We are the party of integration and participation. He is from England and has lived in Mojácar since 1966. Ángel, our president and candidate for mayor, spoke of his experience in town hall affairs and his determination to improve life in Mojácar for its residents. Ángel is from Valencia and has lived here for over twenty years. He has a major in economics from the University of Valencia and has written five books.

We are an enthusiastic party, with great hopes and big plans, but with a small budget. Many of the other contenders have large war-chests. Why, we wonder? What sort of promises have they made? To whom, exactly?

In a small town like Mojácar, the fact is that every vote counts. We would like to thank our Supporters and ask them to spread the word to their friends and neighbours. Let's change Mojácar for the better for once! Vote Ciudadanos Europeos!

CE in Cyberspace

Mojácar's branch of Ciudadanos Europeos now has a webpage in Spanish here and a Facebook account here. You can also hear our adverts locally on Radio Costa 105.6FM.

Candidates

Candidates for Ciudadanos Europeos. L to R: Jana Geyer, Lenox Napier and Ángel Medina.

Our Program for May 2011

CIUDADANOS EUROPEOS (CE) European Citizens

Our Manifesto

Our manifesto is as plain as it is simple; being based on current realities and with full knowledge of all recent political events over these past four years, since we were in the government until almost the very end when the project for the underground car-park was once again submitted, in our view inappropriately just four months before an election.

Our Party has always been pragmatic. We did not agree with everything that was done in the past four years nor in the methods used, but we preferred to stay in government for two reasons: to ensure stability and continuity in the Mojácar Town Hall (we’ve seen enough changes, betrayals and motions of censure) and to accomplish smaller goals as became possible, goals that have benefited citizens. Thanks to our ideas and our energy, the town moved forward in a variety of ways. Our first achievements were to move the English Library to its present site and to improve the Agua Enmedio church for the Anglican congregation; our most recent include the patching of La Paratá roads and streets, placing the bilingual electronic displays and the dismantling of the abandoned cranes... small gains that would have been impossible without being a junior partner in the Coalition. We were not permitted to do much more. Throughout all this period, we have continued to hold regular public meetings with residents.

Thanks to our work in Culture, over forty artists have hung their work in the Art Centre at the Bóveda del Castillo and people have enjoyed over fifty concerts and plays due to our efforts in that field. In Tourism, we have increased the number of ‘Blue Flags’ for our beaches to four.

Beyond these departments, we were also in charge of ‘Exterior Relations’, and we were able to improve our contacts with our twinned town of Encamp in Andorra, taking groups of young people there for skiing holidays.

For the next four years, with enough support from the electorate, we propose ten points.

1-Police.
Improve traffic flow by widening and fixing the Las Marinas road, substituting this for the so-called (but never completed) ‘Ring Road’. We shall finish the roundabouts program on the beach and the white-lining of the centre of the carriageway to discourage disruptive and illegal left turns across oncoming traffic.
For security reasons, we shall install at the entrances / exits of the town closed-circuit surveillance cameras.

We shall continue our fight against excessive noise.

2-Street-cleaning.
Make it one councillor’s job to oversee that the company honours their cleaning contract and performs balanced services in all neighbourhoods. Better infrastructure to improve the environment both in the town as on the beach and in the sea.

3-Finance.
Reduce the current high level of the IBI with these two options:- Firstly by cutting back the percentage of tax revenue without lowering the monies collected by tracing all unpaid rates and second, by finalizing the General Plan, which allows changes in assessed values.

4-Seniors.
Start building once and for all the care home for our Senior Citizens. We know how to get the necessary funding, have the location reserved and can link the residential plot next to it.

5-Health.
A new ambulance and X-ray department must be provided at the medical centre on the beach as we wait for the new medical centre.

6-Culture.
Reconvert the newly opened Art Centre back to its planned function as a museum, to house and exhibit the town’s extensive art collection; to exhibit touring collections and to exchange exhibitions. We shall provide local associations a place to hold their meetings.

7-Public Transport.
We have managed to improve taxi and local bus services, now we must fight for a regular bus-route to the airport and a second to the Huercal Overa hospital.

8-Youth.
Promoting all opportunities to assure young people a better future: using the municipal nursery, the domestic science school, the music academy, the information technology school and to expand these opportunities.

Sign agreements with British schools and universities to exchange students and thus promote language learning and scholarship.

9-Residents.
Promote the integration of all residents in our community, by doing things together, celebrating the holidays and festivals of other countries, subsidising language classes, above all, by permitting the admission of people from other countries into the municipal work-force.

10-Sports.

Encourage the use of our sporting facilities and opportunities. Bring outside teams to practise in our facilities over the winter. Build a new lawn bowling club to replace the recently closed one and to build a motor-cross track. To fight for a yacht marina and to encourage nautical sports.

Many projects proper to Ciudadanos Europeos have been left unfinished, and not through any fault of ours: complete the process against the illegal build within the Edificio Victoria; open a bilingual municipal radio; work on the rambla at La Paratá and repair of some of the streets there (Águilas, Golondrinas, Jilguero and others); the installation of ‘crash barriers’ on the way up to La Paratá; reparation of other apparently overlooked beach streets, such as the Rumanía, Rapa, Llanos de Abejorro, Picaso and so on; the promotion of Mojácar through its relationship with Walt Disney; the creation of a group of tour-guides; more and better parking and ‘blue zones’; a proper use as a tourist asset of our archaeological heritage…

For these reasons, we are making a special effort in this campaign to gather enough support from Mojácar’s citizens to give us the opportunity to continue to work for what we have always advocated: cleanliness, public safety and the improvement of services of all kinds. We offer an alternative and transparent kind of local politics: talking, meeting people, answering letters... Local politics is not about power, but about the obligation to serve one’s community.

What can one do with large projects that can’t be maintained properly? Ciudadanos Europeos believes in simple and reasonable solutions to making Mojácar a better place to live.

Notice: formal names are used on the voting list. We are better known to our many friends as follows:

Ángel Medina

Lenox Napier

Jana Geyer

Mariano Novo

Audrey Hathaway

Isabelle Bes

Carlos Blanco

Sarah Hogg

Maureen Sykes

Consuelo Vidal

Alan Sykes

Blanca Morera

Ángel Cifre

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We now have a page on Facebook here.

Don't forget: Our next 'meeting' (with a vino español) at the Hotel Continental, Mojácar Playa, from 12 noon on Saturday 7th May. All welcome.