Archive for the ‘Demolitions’ Category

5TH NOVEMBER – MUSIC FESTIVAL!! at the ROADHOUSE, TABERNAS.
5 bands – 3€ entrance.
Nefasta, Braindeath, Sin permiso, El fin del mundo, Bernardine pussy
ALSO see BOOTHILL TATOO DAVE from the 4th to the 6th.
PITCH UP A TENT! DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Sunday 6th November at Chiringuito Naturista, Av Ciudad de Castelon, Vera Playa.
There will be many individual and unusual handmade goods with a great selection of stalls including embroidered goose eggs, bobbin lace jewellery, Christmas tree ornaments, handmade cards and soaps, wooden puzzles and hand knitted goods, Indalo Art ceramics and jewellery, plus jams and marmalades.
Some local artists will be exhibiting their work, plus Hecho a Mano and Linda will be selling their patchwork and card making supplies and British knitting wools.
This is a charity event in aid of Asprodalba and will take place from 12 noon until 5pm.

John & Muriel Burns at the Albox Car Boot Sale

If you enter ‘John Burns Demolition Albox’ into Google, up come pages and pages of links to virtual reams of newspaper, magazine and website articles about the demolition order John and Muriel Burns received on the 22^nd December last year – a great Christmas present!  They were one household out of nine in the Albox area who had their Christmas ruined when the regional government nullified their building licences and issued demolition orders.  Nothing sells papers like a villain, and  when pensioners invest all their life savings in a dream home then risk having it razed to the ground all publicity is welcome. So it’s great to see that  John and Muriel’s case sparked a lot of interest from the English nationals; The Guardian, The Times, The Standard, Daily Mail and The Sun all wrote articles and ITV came out to film an interview accompanied, no less,  by the Consul, Ambassador and Europe minister, Chris Bryant 

Our intrepid reporter Jo met John at the Albox Car Boot sale where he works on a stall raising money to help home owners who are now experiencing the same problems as John and Muriel. 

Sentinella: How long have you lived here? 

John: We moved here 10 years ago after I’d had a serious heart attack and a triple heart bypass.  We had the house built for us and then built the swimming pool ourselves and landscaped the garden.  It really is our dream home and we plan to live out our lives here! 

Sentinella: How is it possible that you lived here for 10 years before the Junta revoked the building license? 

Muriel: For the first few years all our post was delivered to the builder.  It seems we had had communication from the Junta in 2002 and 2005 but it was never passed on to us.  

John: The Guardia Civil turned up on our doorstep 3 days before Christmas and asked us to sign for an envelope.  I agreed to take the envelope but refused to sign for it and took it straight to Joanne at Albox Town Hall to find out what it was about.  

Muriel: Joanne looked horrified and told us very slowly what the letter said, that our house was on the list of demolitions and it would happen the following April.  I collapsed on the spot and then didn’t stop crying for the next few weeks. 

John: We went straight to see a lawyer and he started on our case the next day.  We were incredibly lucky, he was superb and eventually the case was dropped on account of us not having been properly informed.  

Sentinella: So tell me about the Car Boot stall you have every Saturday in Albox? 

John: The car boot sale is to raise money for people who had to employ lawyers to legalize their homes.  Although we are now personally in the clear there are still a lot of people who are still fighting and can’t afford the legal fees.   

The past year has been an eye opener and although we’ve been disappointed by many, Muriel and I believe in doing right by people so we will always do whatever we can to help others.  There are many like minded people out here as we have found out, so a message to people who are feeling hopeless is come and see us at the Car Boot or get in touch with one of the many organizations around here, Almanzora Group of Friends is a good start! 

The Albox Car boot sale is held every Saturday morning at Cafe Bar International from 09:00-13:00. Situated on the Baza road just outside Albox heading towards Huercal Overa.