MURO
A group of local people in Muro who had success on 22 December with the national Christmas lottery known as “El Gordo”, returned to work as normal on Christmas Eve even though their winnings have meant that some thirty families are able to share ten million euros between them.

Drainage review

DEYA
T HE Town Council in Deya held a tense meeting earlier this week, at which a drainage bill recently passed on to local residents for payment, was hotly debated.

Neighbours had been up in arms over charges that arrived on their doorsteps from the Council for major upgrading of the town's street drainage and plumbing system.

Although the amount demanded from each household is to be split up over several years, for some local people the annual bill has appeared as a demand just too great to pay. The ruling government team, the Partido Popular, has proposed a change to the ruling for settlement of the bill through a modification in the payment structure which will result in next year's individual drainage tax demands being lowered by as much as 21 percent.

Road reopens

MARRATXI
T HE sa Cabaneta Road (PM-V 301-4) which until recently had been closed for improvement work between the access route leading to the Sant Marçal housing developments (Son Veri and Invaer), and Sant Marçal church, is now open.

Investment

ALCUDIA
THE Town Council of Alcudia is planning to spend nearly 26 million euros on the municipality this coming year, a figure which is 13 percent more than the budget for 2004. Out of this new allocation of funds, 5.5 million will go directly into investments.

Key financial commitments are linked to already-established projects which are being paid for over a period of years, including the indoor swimming pool, the sa Torreta housing development and the sports pavillion.

However, new schemes are also on target, such as the opening of the Cami de Ronda, a walk on top of the old town ramparts in Alcudia; and a football pitch with an artificial grass surface.

Honoured

ARTA
T HE fire station in Arta received a visit on Christmas Eve from Maria José Rodriguez, director of Technical and Emergency Services in the Council of Majorca.

The occasion, which was a Christmas acknowledgement of the work undertaken by the firemen, was also attended by local mayor, Rafel Gili.
Green project

MURO
SOME thirty children took part at the end of this week in a tree planting programme in the s'Amarador district in Muro. The event was organised by the Balearic Forestry Assocation and authorities at the s'Albufeira natural park near Alcudia. Such projects aim to raise environmental awareness, and in this instance to create woodland running alongside a river.

Not much room

ANDRAITX
BERNARDO, owner of the Bar Caspobil in Andraitx, has made short work of collecting two giant wild mushrooms in the na Vidala area. One of them weighed 500 grammes and the other 300. The wild mushrooms have arrived later this season, but are reportedly “better” than in other years.