23 Dec, 2009 @ 00:39
1 min read
3

Bah humbug!

THE Olive Press salutes the authorites for finally attempting to sort out the carnage of 15,000 illegal homes in Chiclana.

But did they have to evict ten families in the Christmas week?

The sense of timing and heartless lack of goodwill is totally out of step with the lapse authority that allowed the homes to go up in the first place.

After all, where was the town hall – and Junta – when these, and the thousands of other illegal homes, were being built over recent years?

Quietly taking a bung, shaking a hand, giving a wink… and walking off with a back pocket full of bin ladens, that is where.

If anyone deserves this sort of bully boy treatment at Christmas it is the mayor, the councillors and, above all, the Junta.

And, that of course, is not to forget former Junta boss Manuel Chavez, who has moved upstairs to Madrid… and his colleague, idiotic environment boss Cinta Castillo, who thinks the 14-storey concrete monstrosity, the Algorrobico, built on a virgin beach in Almeria, is OK.

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.

After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.

On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.

This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.

After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.

After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.

As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.

He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.

He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Contact jon@theolivepress.es

3 Comments

  1. Great article, sounds like I wrote it too. The answer to this whole issue was not to allow families to occupy the buildings in the first place, and of course, not allow the building to take place at all. But it did. Why? Because it is all part and parcel of the “sytem” in Spain, where some prople profit whilst the end result is eviction and demolition. This needs to stop. It’s simple: imprison the developer when he refused to copitulate to the first court order. If Spain cannot enforce such simple laws, then there is clearly a ulterior motive. That motive is greed.

  2. The 14 storey hotel on the beach in Carboneras is, in fact 22 storeys. Even worse!
    Odd though, the junta accepts if it knocks it down it will pay compensation.
    Not the case with the Priors of the ‘Albox 8’.

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