Lanzarote’s wine harvest has already begun in Haria, making it one of the first places in Europe to bring in the grapes. But predictions for this year’s crop are pessimistic. There has been little rain over the last year, and last year’s summer heatwave scorched a large number of plants. This has meant that weeds have flourished at the expense of the vines. Further south, areas such as La Geria are still waiting before they start their harvest.
Despite the predicted low quantity, experts predict the quality of the grapes will be high this year. Anyone who wishes to see how grapes were traditionally harvested, and even have a go at treading a few, should go to the La Geria bodega on the morning of 15th August, when a special fiesta is held.

The technical workers of the Spanish tax authorities have estimated that around €322 million have been lost to tax avoidance in the property sector in the Canaries every year since 2003. The figure is part of much larger amount of almost 8 billion euros that has been denied to the Spanish tax authorities every year by promoters and constructors of houses.
The fraud is strongly associated with the €500 note, known as the ‘Bin Laden’ in Spain, as so few people have ever seen one. These high-denomination notes are so frequently used in large cash-in-hand payments - the ‘black money’ payments that permit sellers to avoid taxes - that the technical staff of the tax authorities are requesting that the government introduce measures forcing banks to disclose transactions involving large amounts of the banknotes.
Although the problem has diminished recently with the dip in the domestic market, the technicians are demanding that firm action be taken.

Three Lanzarote businessmen have been charged with hiring a German contract killer to murder a local lawyer. Oliver Rodriguez Santos, a Lanzarote businessman and rally driver, was taken into custody after the Guardia Civil uncovered an attempted contract killing of a lawyer on the island.
It is alleged that Rodriguez Santos and two other businessmen hired a German known as ‘Boris’ to cut the throat of a lawyer who they believed owed them money.
However, the Guardia Civil believe the case is a classic extortion racket. An architect in Tenerife was also threatened by the group, who went as far as cutting the brake cables on the car used by the lawyer and his family.
The Guardia Civil monitored a conversation which took place in an Arrecife warehouse, in which the killing of the lawyer was agreed, before arresting the plotters and the hitman, who are now being held in Tahiche jail awaiting trial.

Tias councillor Pedro Calero has accused the Tias Ayuntamiento ruling group of ‘bringing the municipality to ruin” following the revelation that the Council is considering out-of-court settlements of €3 million.
Mayor José Juan Cruz is accused of settling various debts for invoices out of court in an attempt to save money for the Council, but Calero insists that this is an example of mismanagement in “what was once the richest municipality in the island.”
Cruz has already announced that the budget for leisure and sports will be cut, and the loss of 2.5 million Euros of public heritage money following the building of the golf course is another example of waste, according to Calero. “We have to ask where these huge amounts of money have ended up, “ he said, “and it is clear that Puerto Del Carmen will suffer due to money shortage.”
Meanwhile, Yaiza Council has made the first steps towards dragging itself out of debt, taking out a loan that will enable it to pay off a two million euro tax debt. However, the Council is now looking for ways to address a six million euro debt owed to Social Security. “Since I have arrived, I have done nothing but seek ways of patching up the. Municipality’s debts,” said Leonardo Rodriguez, the Yaiza Treasurer.

The Canarian Government’s Tourism Department has presented its annual report, and claims that tourism on the islands is improving, with new markets being tapped.
The Tourist Department pointed out that markets such as Russia, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic have all grown enormously, by between 40 and 70 per cent. Inter-island tourism has also grown, with 8.8 million holidays between the islands in the last year.
The Spanish mainland also remains an important market, and last month Madrid Barajas airport took over Gran Canaria as the airport which provided the most flights to Lanzarote. The Tourist Department is also going ahead with work to improve Puerto Del Carmen (Turning the Avenida de las Playas into one-way road with cycle lanes; and Costa Teguise, where the promenade at Punto Jablillo will be renovated.
A Canarian campaign has also been launched encouraging locals to be friendly and welcoming to tourists. The “Put a Tourist into Your Life” campaign will begin shortly.

The Cabildo’s Road Safety Department has launched a campaign that aims to reduce speed on the island’s roads by raising people’s awareness of the dangers of excessive speed.
“Why so much speed?” is the slogan for the campaign, which will be carried out with posters, advertisements on TV, radio and in the papers and leaflets.
600 people died on Spanish roads in 2007, and a large proportion of those deaths were caused by excessive speed. So far this year, four people have died on Lanzarote’s roads, and the Road Safety Department does not want to see any increase in that amount.

Hauliers throughout Spain have staged a massive demonstration against the high Price of petrol and diesel. Lanzarote truckers have also joined in, and the strike on the mainland could have serious repercussions for the Canaries.
The National Federation of Transport Associations, Spain’s second-largest haulage union, is protesting against petrol price rises of 20% over the last year, which they say are making it impossible to make ends meet. They demand that the Spanish President Zapatero subsidise the sector. Lanzarote truckers joined the protests on the morning of Friday 13th June, forming a convoy of around 200 vehicles and holding up traffic between Arrecife and Playa Honda as they drove slowly around, before parking in front of the Courtrooms in Arrecife.
Further demonstrations have been planned. Blockades in mainland ports have also meant that hundreds of tons of Canarian produce has gone to waste, although at the time of writing it is not forecast that the islands will suffer any shortages due to lack of supplies.

Hundreds of dead seagulls were found in northern Lanzarote in early June. Local authorities were first alerted to the presence of a number of dead birds at the Vega de San José in Teguise. Later, more bodies were found at Famara and around the dam in Mala. The small pools of fresh water where the birds were found were immediately fenced off and samples taken for analysis.
At the moment, there has been no official explanation for the deaths, but official sources say that everything points to the fact that the seagulls were poisoned, probably by consuming toxic materials at the dump in Zonzamas. Poisoned birds frequently go in search of fresh water, which would explain their presence at the sites at which their bodies were found.

The Hotel San Antonio in Tias, one of the island’s most famous, will be the first hotelon the island to have a ‘solar floor’. One entire floor of the hotel will be powered by solar panels, which will not only provide hot water, but also air-conditioning – giving rise to the strange situation of guests being kept cool by the sun. It is estimated that the installations will save up to 622 tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere ever year.

The PP party in Tias has been told by a judge that it must pay €12,000 if it wishes to act as peoples’ prosecutor in the case against Tias Police Chief Francisco Hernández and Tias Mayor José Juan Cruz.
An open trial has been declared to investigate allegations that, last January , the Police Chief caused a traffic accident while drunk, fleeing from the scene afterwards, and that the Mayor of Tias attempted to cover the incident up. The charge is nothing out of the ordinary, as it is normal for claimants to be expected to pay a form of bond in court cases.

The Lansaldo Fair in Arrecife got off to a roaring start with over 5,000 bargain hunters attending on the first day. Over 58 exhibitors were at the Fair, which was set up as an alternative for retailers to sell goods that are out of date or that a shop wishes to remove from stock.
As a result, massive bargains were to be found on items from clothing and fishing tackle to perfume and carpets. The fair was so successful it looks as if it will become a regular event. Let’s hope next time someone tells the Gazette about it in advance!

President Zapatero of Spain met Canarian President Paulino Rivero on June 4th for the first time since ‘ZP’ was re-elected in March. After a two-hour meeting, a spokeswoman for the Canarian Government declared that the two leaders had agreed on almost all points. However, President Zapatero said he was opposed to Rivero’s pet project of the creation of a Canarian Police Force.
Both leaders agreed that the 40-day limit for interning illegal immigrants should be extended – a proposal that has been bitterly opposed by human rights groups and immigrant associations.
They also agreed that the growth of the Canarian population would have to be taken into account in state budgets. Although no announcement has been yet made, rumours are strong that President Zapatero will spend his summer holidays in Lanzarote once again. The President has holidayed here twice previously while in power, and frequently speaks of his love for the island.

A meeting between Cabildo President Manuela Armas and the Mayors of the island’s seven Ayuntamientos resulted in broad agreement that such a centre should be built on the island. Theonly Mayors who disagreed were those of Haria and Tinajo, both members of the Coalicion Canaria, who feel the centre “isn’t necessary.”
However, the other five Ayuntamientos, allied by Socialist/PIL coalitions apart from Yaiza, agreed that the Spanish Government’s order to build a centre on Lanzarote arose from an agreement between the Canarian Government and the state that such a building was necessary. Lanzarote is the largest Canary Island that does not yet have an immigrants centre, while smaller islands such as Fuerteventura have had one for some years.

Two members of the Teguise Local Police have owned up to pocketing traffic fines. Antonio M. and José M. members of Teguise Local Police, admitted in court to keeping around 30 traffic fines, totalling more than €1,800, between 2003 and 2005.
It was reported at the time that the officers targeted tourists, who were less likely to complain. Judgment has not yet been passed.

Tias council have pledged to extend foreign language facilities for the large number of foreign residents who live in the municipality. Last month, Tias Mayor Juan Jose Cruz, announced the introduction of a simultaneous translation project that will allow English and German-speaking residents to speak to Council officials and police officers.
The service consists of a mobile phone with headphones, which is worn by both the official and the customer. The customer will give their question, which will be translated by a translation centre and relayed to the official. Their response will also be translated for the customer. Languages such as Chinese, Arabic and French are also available.
The mayor said “The ideal situation would be that everyone spoke Spanish, making integration complete,” pointed out the Council was promoting Spanish lessons for foreigners. However, unlike in other municipalities in Spain, the courses are not subsidised.

There was anger at a general meeting called by Teguise council to discuss the proposed Immigrants Centre, that is proposed to be built near the current prison in Tahiche. Opposition councillors from the CC and PP strongly opposed the centre, and asked for the mayor’s resignation, accusing him of ‘’going behind the people’s backs’ by entering into the first stages of approval for the centre with the Cabildo recently.
PP Councillor Roger Deign caused a stir when he said he feared the centre would become a ‘Guantanamo’, and claimed that residents of costa Tegusie were worried the immigrants would bring ‘tropical diseases’, and that the town would be vulnerable to ‘starving, desperate people who will do anything to stay alive.” Deign’s words were attacked by the socialists, who said his words were ‘intolerable’ ‘racist’ and ‘xenophobic’. Deign later apologised for what he described as his ‘unfortunate’ statements.
The planned Immigration Centre will hold 200 immigrants, with a maximum number of 400. Lanzarote is among the last Canary Island to have such a centre. Other centres in the Canaries and mainland Spain have been criticised for their ‘brutal’ conditions, in which immigrants are held before extradition procedures are carried out. Few illegal’s remain in the Canaries, with Spain being their main destination.

Prepare for a Viking invasion as low cost Scandinavian airline Norwegian launches its new line form Oslo to Lanzarote on October 13th. It is hoped that the flight, which lasts 5 hours 25 minutes, will be popular with sun-starved Norwegians, as well as Lanzarote residents who fancy a spot of skiing in the frozen north.

The annual spring cleaning of Teguise takes place on Saturday 7th of June, and organisers hope that it will prove just as much of a success as previous spring cleans. Schoolchidren will form black bag squads to clean the beaches in costa teguise, while scuba clubs will work to remove underwater rubbish.
There will also be a simultaneous cleaning of Famara beach. Anyone is welcome to join in, and participants will receive a T-shirt and bottled water. There will also be a special party to celebrate the end of the clan-up. Just turn up at the carpark at Los Charcos beach (near Hotel Melia Salinas) at 9.30 on 7th June to register.

The golf course at Montaña Roja near Playa Blanca remains on the cards. The Canarian Official Bulletin in April published a notice relating to the environmental impact of the project which stated that the plans for the course have been modified to avoid infringing on the breeding grounds of protected bird species. The course has been reduced from 24 to 18 holes, will have four lakes and cover 681,500 square metres.

As well as the Guardia civil, the national and the Local Police, the Canaries will soon have a fourth police force, as the Government of the Canaries has approved the creation of a Canarian Police Force. The motion was approved by the PP/CC ruling group, and opposed by the Socialists, who said “Nobody wants this. It’s a pointless waste of money.”
Meanwhile, a CC spokesman said “Today is a great day. The Canarians will be able to feel safer.” The first police will be inaugurated next year, with a body of 300 officers, rising to 1,700 in coming years. However, their duties and responsibilities have not yet been clearly defined.

Driving without a licence became a crime in Spain on May 1st. Previously treated as an administrational misdemeanour, drivers who go on the road without licences now face heavy fines or even prison.
Up to now it has been fairly common practice on Lanzarote for parents to let their children drive their cars without passing the driving test, but now that’s all changed. Driving schools have already reported a rise in registrations as youngsters try to avoid being collared. Lanzarote police have, so far, arrested four drivers under the new laws. All were fined.

The taxi drivers have asked the island’s institutions to consider spreading flight arrivals at Arrecife Airport throughout the week to avoid the huge taxi queues that still form. The taxi drivers association said that opening up the airport to taxis from other municipalities was not the solution, as “this day makes up for the other six.” The only solution, according to the association, is to distribute flights equally throughout the week.
Currently, the queue at the airport must reach 50 people before taxis from other zones can pick up. This explains why furious tourists can wait up to an hour for a cab, while a number of vehicles are parked across the road with drivers waiting for the queue to hit the 50% mark.

The stepfather of Yulissa Perez , the 18-year old Dominican girl whose body was discovered outside Arrecife last year, has confessed to her murder. Antonio Luis Ferreira has been held in protective custody since the murder, but was finally formally charged of the murder after forensic tests proved that the body had been transported in his car. He confessed shortly afterwards.
There were emotional scenes at Arrecife’s courthouse as Ferreira was formally charged. Yulissa’s mother held a vigil outside, shouting “How could you do it when she loved you so much?” At one point the grief-stricken mother collapsed with emotion. All of this was filmed by local media, who have been criticised for the intrusiveness.
Last year a TV company delayed telling the mother the news that her daughter’s body had been found in order to film her reaction. Ferreira has been transferred to a prison in Gran Canaria, as his safety cannot be guaranteed in Tahiche jail.

The Cabildo has announced that mountain bike routes will be constructed throughout Lanzarote and La Graciosa. Nine new routes will be established, seven of which will allow cyclists to enjoy the best landscapes in each of the island’s municipalities.
Another route will be built on the island of La Graciosa, and the final path will allow cyclists to complete a circuit of the whole island. The routes will be signposted, and although no date has been given for their construction, the Cabildo has already budgeted for them and says they will be constructed “in the near future.”

Low cost airline Monarch has announced that it will increase it’s capacity in the forthcoming winter season. Liz savage, Monarch Director General, announced recently that there would be 15 per cent more seats on flights from Birmingham and 10 per cent more on flights from Luton Airport as of November 1st.
The news has been welcomed by the tourist industry on the island. Monarch is the sixth-largest airline in passenger volume at Arrecife Airport and brought a total of 100,660 tourists to the island last year.
The British market remains Lanzarote’s main hope. Out of the 1,618,335 tourists who came to the island last year, just over 50 per cent flew from the UK.

The long-awaited Playa Blanca Health Centre now has trained medical staff on hand from Monday to Friday and is open until 10 pm at night. The centre will provide emergency care for residents of the southern town, who have previously had to travel to Tias or Arrecife. Anyone within the Social Security system will be entitled to use the service.

After meeting with representatives of the consumer groups campaigning against high prices on the island, Canarian President Paulino Rivero has pledged that the Canarian Government will subsidise inter-island shipping 100 per cent. “There will now be no excuse for higher prices, “ he announced.
One of the causes of high prices is the ‘double insularity’ suffered by smaller islands. As all goods must pass through Gran Canaria’s port first, the outlying islands are effectively islands twice over. Consumer groups expressed satisfaction with the decision, but are still demanding that island laws are revised to allow the entry of low-cost supermarkets, as well as a review of the situation on Lanzarote where the two main supermarkets occupy far more than the 25 per cent of the market provided by law.

The Guardia Civil struck an important blow against drug traffickers last month, with five arrests on the island and the confiscation of 256 kilos of cocaine destined for Lanzarote. The drugs were being brought to the island in a US-registered boat sailing under a false name.
The Guardia Civil, who have been investigating the drug ring for over a year, got wind of the plan and alerted French customs officials in Martinique who arrested a German man and a Venezuelan woman on board and impounded the drugs Shortly afterwards four arrests were made in Playa Blanca and Arrecife on Lanzarote in connection with the seizure.
Another arrest has been made on the Spanish mainland, and two others who are believed to be involved are being sought by the police in Valencia.

Schoolchildren mounted a demonstration at the gates of Puerto Del Carmen Secondary School on the morning of Tuesday 15th April. The youngsters were protesting about the withdrawal of extra-curricular activities and excursions by teachers at the school, who along with teachers throughout the Canaries, are using the measure as a form of industrial action. The teachers are demanding that, as civil servants, they be paid and treated equally to other civil servants.
A spokesman for the children said: “We agree with and support the teacher s’ claims, but feel it’s unfair that we are made to suffer.” All extra-curricular activities and excursions out of school hours are performed on a voluntary, unpaid basis by teachers.

An extraordinary news item appeared in the press in early March, relating how Tias police officers had submitted a report concerning an apparently drunk driver who had been involved in a road accident, who later attempted to escape from the officers and attacked them when apprehended. Nothing particularly strange, until you realise that the driver in question was the Police Chief in Tias, Sergeant Francisco Hernandez.
The report also states that the officers received a phone call from Mayor Juan José Cruz while they were dealing with their boss. The Mayor allegedly told the policemen to take the police chief home, instead of detaining him in the cells- as would be normal for anyone else who had been involved in an accident while drunk, evaded arrest and assaulted a policeman. The events in the report took place on January 17th, and have not surfaced until March. When opposition Councillors in Tias demanded an explanation, an Extraordinary General Meeting was held in which Mayor Cruz said the report would be investigated on a ‘reserved’ basis and refused to comment on his own role in the events. After the meeting CC and PP opposition members said that the Mayor had ‘done nothing.’ There were heated scenes as the Mayor’s deputy shouted at PP members to the effect that “you know what you’re getting yourselves into here”

A young Moroccan has been sentenced to ten and a half years prison for the murder of a British man in Costa Teguise in 2005. Mokhtar Diaouni, 27, was sentenced by a court in Arrecife after being found guilty of the murder of Neil Pearson, aged 41, on 3rd August 2005.
The court heard that a fight had broken out in a bar in Costa Teguise after Moroccans had made comments to British women. Diaouni left the scene of the fight, went home, fetched a kitchen knife and returned to the bar, where he stabbed Pearson three times, causing his almost instant death. The court took Diaouni’s drunken state as a mitigating factor in the circumstances.

The Lanzarote Independence Party (PIL) faces another crisis after the resignation of its President, Antonio Hernández. Hernández renounced his role as Arrecife Councillor of Town Planning as well as his leadership of the party shortly after the General Election of March 9th.
In his statement he spoke of the ‘disloyalty’ shown to him by members of his own party, and acknowledged a lack of democracy, clearly alluding to the influence of the still-imprisoned founder of the PIL, Dimas Martin Hernández was joined a day later by his colleague Isaac Castellano, President of the PIL’s youth wing, who is said to have been ‘disillusioned’ by the PIL.

Lanzarote’s capital will see a new summer shipping route to Agadir in Morocco from the beginning of June. Naviera Armas ferry company has announced that a ship, the Volcan de Tamadaba, with a capacity of 1,000 passengers, will be put into service during the summer.
Tickets will be available from the end of March. Agadir is the gateway to northern Morocco, and its historical cities of Marrakech, Fez, Rabat , Casablanca and Tangier. The voyages will depart weekly from Arrecife at 10.00 am on Saturdays, returning the same day at 10 in the evening.
The route will open up new possibilities for those who plan to get to Lanzarote by car, who have had to use the Cadiz port up to now. Armas also announced another route linking the Canaries with Portugal for the first time. These routes will operate from Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, stopping in Madeira on the way.

Aer Lingus will continue to operate between Dublin and Arrecife following a new agreement with the Irish flagship airline. Tourism councillor of Lanzarote Cabildo announced the prolongation of the popular route recently, and also announced that Aer Lingus will be upping its capacity to 212 passengers per flight, which will mean a possible 65,000 travellers over the year.
Aer Lingus’ Sales Director Aisling Lyons pointed out that 95% of the traffic originates from Ireland, consolidating this country as the third highest provider of foreign tourists to Lanzarote. Ms. Lyons also called on Lanzaropte locals to make the most of the flights and use them as an opportunity to discover the delights of the Emerald Isle.

More than 2,000 demonstrators thronged the streets of Arrecife on Saturday 15th March to demand more investment in Lanzarote’s health services. Representatives of support groups for many people suffering from illnesses, many in whell cahirs, were joined by the general public as they marched on the Government Delegation.
Among their demands were more specialists on the island which will stop ill people having to travel to Las Palmas or Tenerife. Speakers also expressed concern that island authorities were more interested in private health care than public provision.

Spain's most popular newspaper, El Pais, leads with the headline of "A Marbella emerges in Lanzarote" and goes on to describe how a third of Lanzarote's Luxury hotels are illegal. The story describes how the Yaiza and Teguise Councils ignored the moratorium to grant permission for the hotels that have now been ruled illegal and have had their licenses revoked by the courts.
The story quotes Carlos Espino of the Lanzarote Cabildo as saying that there will be no amnesty and that they will demolish where necessary. The newspaper also reports that the 22 illegal complexes in Costa Teguise and Playa Blanca received 36.5 million euro in European Union funding.
El Pais goes on to say that there are two separate ongoing investigations to determine if any crimes were committed by those who granted the licenses.
The report was also covered in the UK press with the Guardian covering the story.

María Dolores Luzardo will occupy a seat in the Spanish Senate after her party (Partido Popular) nominated her as the non-directly elected Senator for the Canary Islands (11 March). The move is generally regarded as a reward for the Partido Popular's relatively good results in Lanzarote during the March 9th General Elections, which came in spite of an overall decline in the Province of Las Palmas.
Spain's incoming Senate will have a total of 264 Senators (up from 259 in the previous legislature) , 208 of them are directly elected by popular vote, with the remaining 56 members elected indirectly by the Governments of the Autonomous Regions.

A Spaniard and two Germans were injured on the morning of Wednesday 5 March, when their Helicopter crashed near Los Hervideros (Yaiza).
The Helicopter was being used to film a Porsche car commercial at the time and the crash happened when the tail of the helicopter touched a road sign during filming. The three occupants were taken to the General Hospital with various injuries, although all were said to be outside danger. The road was closed off by the Guardia Civil due to threat of explosion from the damaged Helicopter.

An elderly German couple lost their lives in a head on collision with another car on the road between Conil and La Geria on 18th February. The accident occurred at midday in the vicinity of la Asomada, when two cars collided head on.
A 48 year-old woman and three children aged 5 and 9 were admitted into Lanzarote General Hospital, and their wounds were said to be ‘not serios’.
The tragic news coincided with the announcement that Lanzarote saw only 10 fatal road accidents throughout 2007,, a huge improvement on the figure of 17 in the previous year.

The first set of statistics issued by the hoteliers association ASOLAN this year give rise to a cautious optimism. ASOLAN announced that the level of tourist occupation in January was 70 per cent, well up on last January’s figure of 65.8 per cent.
The figures would seem to show that things are on the up after last year’s low. However, these are the only official statistics on occupation that the island has, given that there are no figures available for the larger independent sector of apartment rentals and other accommodation.

Long hours, staff cuts, and low pay are what many of the island’s workers in the tourism industry have to tolerate, according to a study by the Cabildo and the University of La Laguna in Tenerife.
The study announced that short-term contracts and a rise in unemployment were also contributing to the precarious existence of many tourist workers, 44 per cent of whom take home less than €900 a month in wages.
A spokesman for the CCOO union said that the study showed clearly that, for most workers “Things have got worse, despite the thousands of millions of euros that are generated on the island.”

The Island director, Carmelo García Deniz, ahs announced that Lanzarote’s force of Guardia Civil officers will be increased by 18.
There will also be new Guardia Civil Headquarters in Haria and La Graciosa. The appointments mean that there are now 370 Guardia civil on the island, along with 43 part-time members.
There are also 31 officers in the Guardia Civil Traffic Department, which looks after non-urban highways.

Yet another hotel has been declared as null by the Supreme Court of Las Palmas. On this occasion, the building at Playa Rubicon was initially denounced by the César Manrique foundation, whose complaint was upheld by the court.
This is the 12th time the foundatiuon has won a case, preventing more than 5,000 tourist places from being built or occupied.

Lanzarote’s gay community launched a widespread campaign urging voters to oppose the Popular Party last month. Thousands of posters, leaflets and stickers bearing a rainbow logo were distributed, as the Collective of Gays, Lesbians, Transexuals and Bisexuals of Lanzarote urged people to ‘fight for their rights.” Gay organizations have been mobilized by the recent statement by the Episcopal Conference, which represents the bishops of Spain, in which catholics were urged not to vote for a party which legalized gay marriage – a direct reference to the governing Socialist party. Since same-sex marriage was legalized in 2004, there have been over 14,000 ceremonies in the country.

The taxi drivers of Tias have made clear their discontent after a decision by the ayuntamiento to install the Auriga system, that would centrally control all cabs in the municipality. Disilliusioned cabbies spoke of the Tias Council’s ‘dictatorship’ and ‘lies’ after the vote, which was opposed by the CC and PP members of the council.
According to the drivers, the Council had not consulted or informed tehem properly before the meeting and they feel railroaded. Their opposition stems from the way the Auriga system is managed, which they feel is a first step towards ‘insularisation’ of the island’s taxis. There are also safety worries about the system, which sends instructions to cabbies via GPS, and the drivers have asked the Traffic Department to state if the system fulfils driving regulations.

Some buildings in the centre of Playa Blanca were flooded and other minor flood damage was reported in Yaiza when between 50 and 90 litres per m² of rain fell in just two hours on 10 February.
Yaiza's new Mayoress, Gladys Acuña, said that because many of the locality's natural barrancos have been blocked by recent construction, the town's purpose built drainage canals are no longer adequate. She also stated that because the bad state of the Council's finances, she will be meeting with the large owners and promoters, who she hopes will work towards a solution.
Emergency services were at work pumping water from the affected buildings (along the Avenida Marítima) until late Sunday Evening.

Gladys Acuña became the new Mayoress of Yaiza on the 5th February following a motion of censure against Yaiza's long-time Mayor, José Francisco Reyes.
The motion was supported by the four councillors from the PIL (Partido de Independientes de Lanzarote) and the three councillors from CC (Coalición Canaria). The five councillors from the PNL voted against the motion and the one councillor from the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) abstained.
Leonardo Rodríguez, who was first on the Coalición Canaria list during the last elections, will take charge of Economy and Urban Planning with the rest of the positions yet to be announced. Gladys Acuña, a lawyer by profession, has pledged to end the conflict between the Municipality and Lanzarote's Cabildo and to concentrate on Sanitation, Education and Transport, which she considers to have been neglected in recent years.
The departing Mayor, José Francisco Reyes, was mayor of Yaiza for the last 14 years, though his party has been governing in minority for the last eight months. He has been a controversial figure, mainly due to the growth of Playa Blanca during his tenure, growth that has often appeared to be in plain defiance of Lanzarote's Cabildo. For his part, Reyes claims that he has simply looked after the interests of his Municipality.

Between 1000 and 1500 people marched between Calle Real and the Parque Islas Canarias in Arrecife on Saturday (2 February) to again protest against the high Supermarket Prices in Lanzarote.
With some of the highest Supermarket prices in Spain, the problems in Lanzarote are blamed on several factors, principally the monopoly of Hiperdino and Supermercado Marcial chains. Other factors being a law which prevents large 'hard discount' stores from opening on the Island, allegations of land-banking by the large players and the current status of Arrecife port.
The protest was organised by Leticia Padilla and her husband, Fernando Marcet, who are in the process of creating a Consumer's Association in Lanzarote.

Two men on Gran Canaria have been arrested in connection with the attempted abduction of a young girl. Arrests swiftly followed the identification of a white van in which a man offered a teenager money to get in, and then tried to force her.
One of the accused has a previous conviction for child abuse and was living in an abandoned animal crematorium. At the time of writing, no charges have been made, but there been a lot of speculation linking the arrests to the disappearances of Sara Morales and Yeremi Vargas, children who disappeared on Gran Canaria in the last two years.

A second demonstration against the supermarket monopoly of Hiperdino and Marcial has been scheduled for February.
Citizens who say that the two companies are conspiring to prevent cut-price discount chains such as Lidl and Carrefour from opening on the island held a peaceful and well-attended demonstration last December, and plan to repeat the exercise on February 2nd at midday in front of the old Cabildo building in Calle Real, Arrecife’s main shopping street.
Despite initial suspicions that the demo had a political agenda, it seems that this is a genuine people’s movement, organised by text message and email. A new internet forum, www.dosdosdosmilocho.foroactivo.com has also been set up to discuss issues relating to the price of living on Lanzarote.

Courts have been busy in January with a string of convictions meaning that, even if hotels are not as full as they’d like, Tahiche jail is doing a roaring trade.
Firstly, two National Police officers based in Arrecife were sentenced to eight and a half years each for various charges relating to the illegal arrest of an African man in the capital. According to reports, the off-duty officers approached the African and asked if he was selling drugs,. When the African, who has no criminal record, angrily denied this, he was kicked and beaten before being taken to the Police Station, where he was insulted and beaten further.
Later, the ex-Mayor of Haria, Juan Ramirez Montero was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for corruption charges relating to falsification of documents in 1995. Montero’s ex-secretary and the owner of the property at the centre of the case also received shorter sentences.
And in a case that may have serious repercussions in Lanzarote’s leisure zones, the owner of a pub in Arrecife received two years in prison for repeatedly infringing noise regulations. Charges were brought by Pablo Betancort of the Lanzarote Noise Abatement Society, and the judgement is the first ever conviction in the province of Las Palmas for excessive noise. Betancort is also suing ex-members of the Ayuntamiento of Arrecife for corruption – it is alleged that they had interests in the club and obstructed investigations into nuisance.

A 29 year-old Polish man was rescued by emergency services in a helicopter after getting lost in Timanfaya National Park. The tourist was picked up in the vicinity of Playa Cochinos after having made calls on his mobile signalling his distress.
As the helicopter searched for him he signalled with the flash on his camera. The helicopter, after landing with some difficulty, picked up the exhausted and disoriented hiker and later reunited him with his family.

The Supreme Canarian Court has annulled the licence of an as yet unoccupied hotel in Costa Teguise in one of the strongest-worded of the 19 recent judgments withdrawing licences from hotels on Lanzarote.
The 600 room hotel, which lies between the Hotel Oasis and the King’s residence in Costa Teguise, was annulled for not having submitted plans for the approval of the Cabildo. The Court’s ruling said that ‘teguise ayuntamiento must do everything to return the area to the state it was before, by means of demolition if necessary.”

A Canarian estate agent has carried out a survey which shows that the cheapest home in the Canaries is in Fuerteventura and costs €51,000. The bargain—bin one-bedroom 50 square metre property is located in the town of Antigua and has its own parking and access to a common swimming pool.
The most expensive property in the survey was on the Costa Adeje in Tenerife, a 500 square metre villa overlooking the sea that would set you back €2.6 million, for which price you could buy 70 one-bedroom houses in Antigua.

UD Lanzarote and Orientación Maritima, the two highest-placed football teams on Lanzarote, will be one as of next season. The two teams have signed a historic accord which may yet see other local teams joining to form a single top-rate Lanzarote side.
As yet it is still not known what the new side will be called, and what will happen if either Lanzarote are relegated or Maritima promoted, in which case they would be playing themselves.

A demonstration against the monopoly of two supermarket owners on the island made its point strongly on December 15th. Hundreds gathered to march on the Chamber of Commerce, whose members are seen as restricting budget chains such as Lidl or Carrefour from operating on the island.
While many suspected the demo may have had ulterior political motives, doubts were removed when a housewife stood up and announced that she had organised the whole thing via text messages.

José Antonio Levas, the householder who was evicted by Tias Local Police and watched his house bulldozed in January 2006, has said he is ‘satisfied’ with the verdict of the Canarian Supreme Court, which has ruled the actions of Tias Council illegal. According to the court, Tias acted outside of its authority in declaring an urgent compulsory purchase and, later, eviction order, in order to construct the still-unopened golf course at Puerto Del Carmen.
At the time, the council offered Levas €27,000 as compensation for his 6,000 square metre finca, while Levas demanded almost half a million. The sentence of the court will decide how much Levas should receive. Meanwhile, he say he is thinking about “going to camp on the course in a tent.”

The endless problems surrounding the Tarfaya ferry line have resulted in Naviera Armas threatening to suspend the recently-launched service between Fuerteventura and Morocco. The service was initially proposed for Arrecife, but was moved to Puerto Del Rosario when that port attained the Schengen International Port status necessary for links with Africa. However, the first few services saw delays of up to a day at Fuerteventura’s capital and Naviera Armas began to lose its temper. The service is still running to a revised schedule and hopes on Lanzarote are high that Arrecife will become a stop on the voyage as soon as it achieves Schengen status.

A director of Europe’s largest tour operators, the German company TUI, suggested Lanzarote should clean up its act at a recent conference on tourism. Ignacio Felpeto of TUI said that recent strikes by tourist centre workers and airport baggage handlers, as well as the continuing saga of queues for taxis at the airport, had left a bad impression on thousands of German tourists.
He blamed the fall of 120,00 tourists in the last five years on the fact that Lanzarote had ‘done nothing’ to promote itself in Europe’s most populated country.
Markus Weiland of Alltours backed up Sr. Felpeto, saying that a generation of German youths were growing up knowing nothing about Lanzarote. Yolanda Perdomo of Promotur pointed out that, for better or worse, the fortunes of the Canaries are more closely tied to the tour operators than any other Spanish market, and that it is thus important to work alongside them.

Yaiza’s Mayor José Francisco Reyes has admitted that he granted illegal licences ‘by mistake’ during a recent Council General Meeting. The statement astounded onlookers, given that Reyes has so far proved unrepentant about granting licences for building thousands of homes that have later been ruled illegal.
However, in this case his apology refers only to a plot on which three homes were built when only one should have been. At the same meeting, opposition councillor begged Reyes “not to mortgage the future of Yaiza on legal proceedings” in reference to a possible 60 million euros which the council could lose in legal costs to save the development of over a thousand new homes in Playa Blanca.
Reyes responded: “Time will prove us right,” and surprised the Council further by announcing that the 17 sentences against him that have been issued by Canarian courts “served for nothing”.

The Spanish Department of Coasts has announced that the Islote de La Santa is now publicly owned and cannot be built on. Alarm was raised last year when a construction firm announced its intention to construct homes for over a thousdand people on the barren isle, but Costas stepped in and have compulsorily bought the isle which will now be the responsibility of the Environment Department.
The Director of Costas, José Fernández, announced that the expropriation of the isles of Montana Clara, Alegranza and Roque Del Este, as well as the grounds of the Hotel Papagayo Arena in Yaiza, were ‘imminent’. Costas also announced that they would address the decline of Charco de los Clicos at El Golfo as a matter of urgency, and had good news for fans of Playa Flamingo in Yaiza, which was destroyed by Tropical Storm Delta in 2005: “We are going to nullify the lease to the private business who currently own the beach and intervene immediately, with which action Playa Flamingo should be better than ever before within six months to a year.

The QE2, once the pride of British shipbuilding and the jewel in the crown of the Cunard line, visited Arrecife briefly in early December as a stopover on an Atlantic cruise. The ship has now been superseded by the Queen Mary as the flagship of the nation, but she was still an impressive sight. This may have been the last chance locals had to see her, as she will be taken out of service later in 2008 to become a floating hotel in Dubai.

The LADS (Lanzarote Amateur Dramatic Society) Christmas pantomime at San Bartolomé was a resounding success with plenty of local kids and parents turning up to shout “Behind you!” at Mother Goose and the rest of the cast.

At 11 o’ clock on Saturday 15th December, a demonstration will leave the old Cabildo building on Calle Real in Arrecife headed for the Chamber of Commerce on C/José Antonio. The marchers will be protesting against what they see as the monopoly run by the two major supermarket chains on the island, Hiperdino and Marcial. The march, which has not been organized by any political party, will demand food at fair prices as well as an end to the regulations that have so far prevented discount operators such as Carrefour and Lidl from opening here.
“We are sick of paying 400-500 euros a month to eat”, claim the marchers in a press release, “and we are sick of the fact that policies that protect the same old names prevent discount operators arriving on the island. Are we going to carry on moaning in bars, or are we going to make them take notice?”