Latest posts in Rojales

I am posting this on behalf of my "Better Half",

We are looking/planning to retire to the Costa Blanca in the in the next 2 years.

My wife has raised a very good point regarding HRT treatment, as she is now of a certain age and is trying to investigate everything before we arrive.

Can anyone advise on the availability and all aspects around HRT.

Any information or advise would be very much welcomed to ease her mind.

Regards

Steve

Phone 688 72 13 94

Many will have seen huge increases in Waste collection taxes this year. Benidorm has seen one of the highest increases whilst in Rojales we have seen them rise by almost 60% from just under 80 euro a year to 126.90 a year. . This is all due to new rules laid down by the EU that increases the tax to be paid on rubbish sent to landfill sites and recycling plants which almost doubles. That and the new waste collecting site in the Vega Baja and Marina Alta areas has been responsible for these increases.

Some ayuntamientos have absorbed the increases and not charged extra by subsidising the rises. They may include this in IBI collection later on in the year. The EU ruling also states that people are to be made aware of the costs in rubbish collecting and councils must stop subsiding the costs by 2025 so those areas without a rise this year may see quite a large one next year. The full cost must then be borne by the user and not by the councils.

Torrevieja, for example, only collects 25% of the costs they pay Acciona for this service. Just 5.8 million euro a year compared to the 24.3 million it pays out. By 2025, the costs must be covered by the monies that are raised, without there being any contribution from municipal accounts  although Torrevieja has said it will not raise the charges but how they can cover the 18.5 million euro deficit has not been explained. 

The rise in IBI this year will be an average of 7% throughout the region. Here in Rojales it will be 7.7%. This is the bit that is due to increased wages in the councils which have risen since 2019 but council taxes have remained at the same level so councils have been given permission to absorb these costs in the amount they charge for IBI. The Benidorm rise in IBI has been mooted as 23% and the Santa Pola opposition has claimed theirs will rise by 28% although that could just be politicising. 

These rises were being discussed in September of last year and officially announced in November last year.

Seems like only two things are certain in this life and taxes are one of them. 

Can anyone recommend a restaurant where they do barbecue please.

Thank you.

In a Valencian Order to be published tomorrow, mobile phones will be banned in schools and educational institutes as from Monday next, 6th May 2024.

They will be banned inside the school, in play and recreational areas and extra curricula classes. Some junior schools have already banned them in classes for some time but this new ruling bans their use throughout except in two particular cases. 1 is if the class deals with a lesson held through the internet or 2 if there is a medical or family reason for having them which must be cleared by the school board first.

This has been brought about due to lack of attention in classes and the increase in bullying using mobiles to pass messages.

So if you have a child in school here in the Valencian region, make sure they leave their phones at home before attending. In the case of non compliance, the school will have a protocol for taking temporary custody of the phones and will not be returned until after school ends plus a letter to the parents warning them of the new rules. One part of the protocol is that the child must turn the phone off and disable it before being impounded to protect confidentiality.  Some schools issue "points" when this rule has been violated and, if they exceed a certain amount of points, will be allowed to permanently confiscate the phone. 

The council has stressed that this measure is being taken to reinforce the role of teachers and their authority in the classroom and to avoid harm to the child's academic progress. 

The resolution was announced today which is World Day Against Bullying after so-called cyberbullying has been shown to have increased by more than 50% since 2019.

Morning everyone I’m looking for a good reliable car hire for pickup at Alicante airport. T

Following on from a post on another thread, where do you buy most of your supermarket shopping?

We find we can't get everything in one particular supermarket and have to visit several for the things we want. We do try to get fruit and veg from the local markets as they are much cheaper and often fresher but do have to use supermarkets now and then.

We are lucky in our area as we have a Consum, Mas y Mas, Aldi, Lidl, Mercadona and even a Food Co (formerly known as Tesco) all within walking distance although the Mercadona one is a bit of a stretch. 

Consum has a great butchers counter, a great deli and a marvellous fresh fish counter. The butchers are very skilled and will cut your selection to what you want and trim it for you. Even fresh legs of lamb (if I take out a mortgage to get one) and they will cut it in half for you as well as pork chops with the rind still on. The deli counter has a great range of cold meats, pates, cheeses and so on and you can choose how much you want. They also do good quality halloumi cheese. The fish counter has some excellent ladies who, once you have chosen your fish, will head and tail it, gut it, fillet it and very carefully get rid of all the bones so you end up with ideals fish fillets. The fruit and veg section has a lot but we find it quite expensive and some of the items are not the best quality. Bread and cake section also not particularly a great selection except the large cakes. Beer and spirit selection is very good.

Mas y Mas and we normally only use it for certain things. The butchery counter is very good although more expensive. The fish counter is very poor and, whilst they clean the fish, they don't fillet it and just gut it. Other items are quite expensive but their fruit and veg is quite good and they have the best range of condiments and sauces of any. Teriyaki, Soy, Zigeuner sauce, Mexican hot and medium sauces and even Jack Daniels rum bbq sauce and all very reasonable priced. Also have halloumi cheese like Consum. Wine selection is also very good.

Aldi which someone says they don't use which surprises me. There are things we can get there that we can't get anywhere else. Lollo Rosso lettuce, sour cream (at a reasonable price), fruit and veg usually with good offers on certain days. For example, fresh strawberries are half the price of Mercadona at the moment and the same type and region. Possibly one of the best wine selections around as well. Their own brand cereals are also great quality and thinks like corn flakes and bran flakes very close to their expensive branded ones at a third the cost. Most other supermarket own brand cereals are very sweet and hard, we find. Their bakery section is also excellent with a great choice. 

Lidl we try and avoid. The whole experience is quite poor with too few checkouts open and queues going up the food aisles. Also find the quality of meats is not very good except the steaks which are very good. Chicken quite poor quality as is mince meat. They have a great cheese selection especially a mature or vintage cheddar which is the best we've found and very reasonably priced, Their ice cream is also the best around from choc ices to tubs and a great variety. Just the disorganised mayhem that always seems to be going on.

Mercadona just a bit further away but we find their fruit and veg is excellent although a little more expensive. Also the range is not quite as good with most lettuce being the pre-packed variety. No butchers or deli counter except for a serrano ham section and everything else is pre packed. Even legs of lamb are deep frozen. They have a good range of bread and pastries although we prefer the ones at Aldi. Their cleaning materials are about the best around and far surpass the own brands at other supermarkets. We don't use it for a lot but probably about third out of all of them. Beer selection is also very limited. Cheeses are a good range though the cheddar is very gritty and no halloumi cheese. 

The Food Co (formerly Tesco) and I'm surprised it is still going. Items are few and far between and they can't supply things like pork pies, Cornish pasties, sausages etc anymore. Bread is generally frozen and quite expensive and doesn't last long once defrosted. We did like the Oat bread but found it went green after a couple of days so now stick to buying from the Spanish ones, Aldi with a rustic loaf where the slices are what we expect of UK loaves. Other things are very expensive, for example a frozen leg of lamb at 30 euro, frozen fish at double the cost of fresh fish in other places. Avoid the veg section as things are really expensive. Charlotte potatoes were 2 euro a kilo bag which went up to 2.25 then 2.50 and the size has been reduced to 750g. Parsnips at 4 euro for a 500g pack when you can get them at the market for 2 euro a kilo, eggs (proudly labelled as coming from UK) a good euro more a dozen than elsewhere. Sometimes has good deals on beers but never on wines which are quite expensive. 

Still, it would be a boring old world if we were all the same. Just some thoughts on our lot so does anyone have favourite places where they do most of their shopping? For us tomorrow is the market at San Miguel which is mainly fruit and veg. 

Is it cancelled today due to the weather? Does anyone know.

Thanks

Ken

My wife and I  are in the process of working out everything we need to fulfil the requirements of a Non Lucrative Visa.

We are toying with the idea of instructing a Solicitor to deal with this for us instead of attempting it ourselves.

Can anyone give me a rough idea of the cost of a Solicitor dealing with the application ?

It obviously would be a joint application.

We have all the finance requirements in place but the paperwork looks daunting ....to say the least.

Thanks in advance

Andy

Are there any spanish classes in the rojales area please?