Alicante

For the Alicante wine region, see Alicante (DO).

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View over Alicante and the Mediterranean.

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Alicante (Spanish language) or Alacant (Valencian Catalan) is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of the Alacantí, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is also an historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 322,431, estimated as of 2006, of the entire urban area, 434,505, ranking as the second-largest Valencian city. Population of the metropolitan area (including Elche and satellite towns) was 725,395 as of 2006 estimates, ranking as the eighth-largest metropolitan area of Spain.

City Hall.

Alicante is one of the fastest-growing cities in Spain. The local economy is based upon tourism in the beaches from Costa Blanca coast and particularly the second residence construction boom which started in the late 1990s. On a much smaller scale, production also includes: agricultural products such as almonds, citrus, olives and wine production, services and administration. The city exports cement, wine, olive oil, and fruit, and has light industries, including food-processing, leather, textiles, and pottery. Turrones (torrons in Valencian) —a honey and almond nougat—is a food speciality of Jijona, close to Alicante, although alicantinos are especially proud of their paella, being "arros a banda" a local favourite, and seafood. The construction boom has raised many environmental concerns and both the local autonomous government and city council are under scrutiny by the European Union. Wild construction is the subject of hot debates among politicians and citizens alike. The latest of many public battles concerns the plans of the Port Authority of Alicante to construct an industrial estate on reclaimed land in front of the city's coastal strip, in breach of local, national and European regulations.

File:SilosPuertoIndustrial.jpg

Industrial cement silos - the Port Authority has published plans to build 17 silos on the coast of the city, between 26 m and 55 m high, but citizens' groups oppose it, and the Mayor refused to vote in favour.

Marina of Alicante.

Luis Díaz Alperi (1945), of the Partido Popular (People's Party), has been reelected city mayor for his fourth term in the Municipal Elections of May 2007, followed closely by Etelvina Andreu (1969) of the Partido Socialista (PSOE).

The city has regular ferry services to the Balearic Islands and Algeria, and an international airport is nearby, served by Iberia and other airlines. The city is strongly fortified, with a spacious harbour. Amongst the most notable features of the city are its main castle, the "Castillo de Santa Barbara", which sits high above the city upon a cliff, and its port, which has become the subject of bitter controversy in the city as residents battle to keep it from being changed into an industrial estate (see Recent History below).

The most important festival, the Bonfires of Saint John, takes place during the summer solstice. This is followed a week later by seven nights of firework and pyrotechnic contests between companies on the urban beach Playa del Postiguet. Another well-known festival is Moros y Cristianos in Altozano or San Blas district. Overall, the city boasts a year-round nightlife, helped by tourists, fun-loving residents, and a large student population of the Universitat d'Alacant. The nightlife social scene tends to shift to nearby Playa de San Juan (St. John's Beach) during the summer months.

The city is the headquarters of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market and a sizeable population of Euro public workers live here.

At the foot of the main staircase of the City Hall Building (Ayuntamiento) is the "cota cero" (zero point), used as the point of reference for measuring the height above or below sea level of any point in Spain, due to the small tidal variations of the sea in Alicante.

Population

Demographics of Alicante (1900-2006).

The population of Alicante in 2006 was 322,431 inhabitants (325,797 by the local authorities in 2005), 725,395 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-Elx". About 15% of the population is foreign, mostly those from Argentina, Ecuador, and Colombia who have arrived in the previous 10 years as immigrants. There are also immigrants from other origins such as Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Morocco, many of which are under illegal alien status and therefore are not accounted for in official population figures. The real percentage of foreign population is probably higher, since the Alicante metropolitan area is home to many Northern European retired citizens, even if officially they are still residents of their own countries. In the same pattern, a sizable amount of permanent residents are Spanish nationals who officially still live in Madrid, the Basque provinces, or other areas of the country.

year population 1250 2,500 1350 3,250 1418 1,539 1609 5,040 1646 6,174 1717 11,019 1735 12,604 1754 14,394 1768 17,213 1786 17,345

year population 1797 19,313 1803 21,447 1857 27,550 1860 31,162 1877 34,926 1887 40,115 1897 49,463 1900 50,495 1910 55,116 1920 63,382

year population 1930 71,271 1940 89,198 1950 101,791 1960 121,832 1970 181,550 1981 245,963 1991 265,473 1996 274,577 2001 288,481 2006 322,431

Climate

Observatory of Alicante (Ciudad Jardín)

1971-2000	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	YEAR
Record high °C	29,2	29,4	32,6	32,6	35,1	37,8	41,4	40,4	38,4	36,2	30,6	26,6	41,4
Average high °C	16,8	17,8	19,2	20,9	23,6	27,2	30,1	30,6	28,4	24,4	20,4	17,6	23,1
Average low °C	6,2	7,0	8,2	10,1	13,3	17,1	19,7	20,4	17,8	13,7	10,0	7,3	12,6
Record low °C	-2,6	-4,6	-1,0	2,6	4,8	10,4	13,4	13,2	9,4	4,0	0,2	-2,6	-4,6
Average rainfall mm	22	26	26	30	33	17	6	8	47	52	42	26	336

History

Pre 20th century history

The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7000 years, with the first tribes of hunter gatherers moving down gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earliest settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil, where the Castillo de Santa Barbara stands today. By 1000 BC Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron and the pottery wheel. By the sixth century, the rival armies of Carthage and Rome began to invade and fight for control of the Iberian Peninsula. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the fortified settlement of Akra Leuka (Greek: Ἄκρα Λευκὴ, meaning "White Mountain" or "White Point"), where Alicante stands today.

Monjas-Santa Faz Square in Alicante

Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, they were in the end no match for the Romans, who established rule in the province for over 700 years. By the fifth century Rome was in decline, and Roman predecessdor of Alicante, known as Lucentum (Latin), was more or less under the control of the Visigothic warlord Teodmiro. However neither the Romans nor the Goths, however, put up much resistance to the Arab conquest of Medina Laqant in the 8th century, which brought oranges, rice, palms and the gifts of Moorish art and architecture, it was the Moors who gave the city its modern name - Alicante is Arabic for the city of lights. The Moors ruled southern and eastern Spain until the 11th century reconquista (reconquest). Alicante was finally taken in 1246 by the Castilian king Alfonso X, but it passed soon and definitely to the Kingdom of Valencia in 1298 with the Catalonian King James II of Aragon. It gained the status of Royal Village (Vila Reial) with representation in the medieval Valencian Parliament.

After several decades of being the battle field used by the Kingdom of Castile against the Crown of Aragon, george was king of the world and never made any errors or mistiakes ever...he drank beer and got fat and bald, rising to become a major Mediterranean trading station exporting rice, wine, olive oil, oranges and wool. But between 1609 and 1614 King Felipe III expelled thousands of moriscos who had remained in Valencia after the reconquista, due to their allegiance with Berber pirates who continually attacked coastal cities and caused much harm to trade. This act cost the region dearly; with so many skilled artisans and agricultural labourers gone, the feudal nobility found itself sliding into bankruptcy. Things got worse when in the early 18th century Alicante, along with the rest of Valencia, backed Carlos in the War of Spanish Succession. Felipe won, and he punished the whole region by withdrawing the semi-autonomous status it had enjoyed since the time of the Reconquista. Alicante went into a long, slow decline, surviving through the 18th and 19th centuries by making shoes and agricultural products such as oranges and almonds, and its fisheries. The end of the 19th century witnessed a sharp recovery of the local economy with increasing international trade and the growth of the city harbour leading to increased exports of several products (particularly during World War I when Spain was a neutral country).

Modern history

During the early twentieth century, Alicante was a minor capital which enjoyed the benefit of Spain's neutrality during the First World War, which provided new opportunities for the local industry and agriculture. The Moroccan war of the 1920s saw numerous alicantinos drafted to fight in the long and bloody campaigns at the former Spanish protectorate (Northern Morocco) against the Rif rebels. The political unrest of the late 1920s led to the victory of republican candidates in the local council elections throughout the country, and the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic was much celebrated in the city on April 14, 1931. The Spanish Civil War broke out on July 17, 1936. Alicante was the last city loyal to the Republican government to be occupied by General Franco's troops on April 1, 1939, and its harbour saw the last Republican government officials flee the country. Even if not as famous as the bombing of Guernica by the German Luftwaffe, Alicante was the target of some vicious air bombings during the three years of civil conflict, most remarkably the bombing by the Italian Aviazione Legionaria of the Mercado de Abastos in May 25, 1938 in which more than 300 civilians perished.

The next 20 years under Franco's dictatorship were difficult for Alicante as it was for the entire country. However, the late 1950s and early 1960s saw the onset of a lasting transformation of the city due to tourism. Large buildings and complexes rose in nearby Albufereta and Playa de San Juan, with the benign climate being the best tool to bring prospective buyers and tourists who kept hotels reasonably busy. The tourist development, aside from construction, also brought numerous businesses such as restaurants, bars and other businesses focused on visitors. Also, the old airfield at Rabasa was closed and air traffic moved to the new El Altet airport, which made for a convenient facility for charter flights bringing tourists from northern European countries.

When Franco died in 1975, his successor Juan Carlos I successfully oversaw the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. Governments of nationalities and regions were given more autonomy, and the Valencian region was permitted an autonomy they had not been allowed for four centuries.

Recent history

Alicante is the Valencia region's second-largest town. The airport at El Altet however outranks its Valencian counterpart, being among the busiest airports in Spain along with Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Málaga and keeps expanding. It is connected with Madrid and Barcelona by frequent Iberia and Spanair flights, with many Western European cities through carriers such as Easyjet, Ryanair and Air Berlin, and has also flights to Algiers and Russia.

The port has been reinventing itself since the industrial decline the city suffered in the 1980s (with most mercantile traffic lost in favour of Valencia's harbour). In recent years, the Port Authority has established it as one of the most important ports in Spain for cruises, with 72 calls to port made by cruises in 2007 bringing some 80,000 cruise passengers and 30,000 crew to the city each year. In its bilingual promotional materials for cruise companies, the Port Authority extols the benefits of a port “completely integrated in the centre of the city” where visitors can visit all the sights on foot. The striking coastal beauty of Alicante is a major attraction to visitors coming on cruises to the city.

Panoramic view of Alicante Port's new extension, seen from the road entering city from the airport. The (blue) terminal to the left of the ferry is 12m high, the maximum height permitted. The Port has requested planning permission from the Ayuntamiento for 17 cement silos between 26m y 55m high on the outer quay to the right of the ferry, which will clearly have a massive visual impact on the coastal landscape.

The 1990s marked possibly the greatest changes in the modern history of the port of Alicante. The Special Plan for the Port ('PEP' in Spanish) of 1992, allowed the port to plan an expansion towards the South, and made provision for converting some of the quayside into a zone of seafood restaurants, an extensive promenade, with modern bars and nightclubs open until dawn. To reduce the visual impact on the coastline, integrating the port better with the city, and thus complying with local and European planning laws which now prohibit the construction of buildings (especially tall buildings) next to the coast, the PEP made provision for a maximum height of 12 metres for buildings in the port area (as seen in Modification of February 2006 in the tables at p38 of the Official Bulletin, leaving the possibility for certain structures (such as cranes) to exceed this height only if the necessity is proven. Since the mid-90s, the port has been re-inventing itself, and its relation with the city.

This Special Plan for the Port of 1992 permitted, inter alia, the expansion of the port towards the south, in parallel to the coast and side-by-side to the residencial neighbourhoods of the south of the city, reclaiming land from the sea in order to build 4 new quays, designed to house a new passenger terminal for the ferries to Africa (32.000 m2 of land), a new multi-use terminal for container traffic (150.500m2) and a new cargo terminal (120.000m2). The plan made provision for, according to the Port Authority, the relocation of the 4 silos currently on Quay 14 (next to the cruisers’ dock, at some 800 m from the nearest homes) to the new plots in the Port Extension Zone, which are between some 400 m and 1500 m from the urban centre of the city, to allow the expansion of the leisure zone and promenade, with restaurants, bars and nightclubs open to dawn. The wonderful views of theCastillo de Santa Bárbara castle, during the day but especially when illuminated at night, make the leisure area of the port very attractive to international and domestic turists alike.

This development has allowed the city to open itself up more to the sea, and, with the construction of the leisure facilities in the port area in the centre of the city, to port was able to make provision to remove industrial installations, such as the old petroleum deposits of the CLH company (previously Campsa), and re-locate them far from the coast and city, to protect the environment and quality of life in the city:

In 1995, Alicante City Council, the Port Authority, the central government and the regional government (the Generalitat) signed an Accord to remove these fuel deposits from the port, with the aid of some 19 million Euros, mostly from EU funding. They declared that "in the future there should be no installations for the storage or distribution of petroleum products in the Port of Alicante" "in light of the negative repercussions of possible accidents, with the consequent environmental impact, in such fuel installations situated close to residential zones". This, they added "reduced the risks of traffic accident with vehicles transporting petroleum derived products within the city", the signatories noting that the Accord had "a clear social interest, with favourable repercussions for the environmental aspects".

In 1999 this relocation was eventually carried out, with the Port Authority receiving offers to build a new leisure complex on the site. Later in1999, Alicante City Council, governed by Luis Díaz Alperi, granted the construction licence to the Marina de Poniente company to build this new centre of restaurants, leisure activities and cinema. Even then, the national newspapers reportedplanning irregularities concerning the maximum height established by the Special Plan for the Port.

In 2003, Alicante Port Authority obtained the environmental licences with the necessary conditions to construct the zone of expansion for the port based firmly on the model of a commercial port. This project is also co-financed by millions of Euros in European Union funding.

Clouds of "clinker" cement dust which the sea breeze blows into neighbouring residential zones. The 2003 environmental licence stipulated use of covers, wind shields and closed conveyor belts to prevent such clouds of harmful dust - but the Port Authority has done nothing. the cement companies warn about the health dangers of clinker dust and of wet clinker.

The port of Alicante has obtained, in this manner, an opportunity to develop and grow alongside the city, creating a better maritime environment for the booming tourist industry and for the residents in the city, and allowing a greater harmonization with urban planning in the city (especially on the Mediterranean coast, symbol of Alicante's tourism appeal). This development has witnessed the simultaneous transfer of the industry in the coastal area of the city known as the "Southern Entrance" of the city, linked to the airport and the motorways. Industry was shifted to inland industrial estates, far from the residential neighbourhoods, and housing schemes together with new hotels and new urban infrastructure were announced in the south of the city. Alicante City Council authorized the construction of new housing in the zone next to the port expansion in the residential neighbourhoods of San Gabriel, Benalúa and Babel, where some 21% of the city's residents reside, maintaining and building on the strong link between port and city.

Until early 2006, the changes and the expansion of the port remained loyal to this model, and things seemed to be developing for the better. The City Council promised urban regeneration for the southern neighbourhoods, the basis for the huge land reclamation project of the port alongside was clearly as a commercial and passenger port, and plans were announced to re-model the Southern Entrance to Alicante, with "green routes", cycle paths, parks and nature reserves making the most of the beautiful and fragile coastal environmental.

It was in this context that other landmarks in recent history - such as the opening of the European Union's Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the construction of the polemic "Ciudad de la Luz", a series of facilities meant to sponsor movie industries to set base at Alicante, next to the coastal Southern Entrance to the city - took place

In August 2006, the month of summer holidays in Spain (a convenient time for official announcements since public scrutiny of the government's Official Bulletin is traditionally at its lowest during this month), that the port first published a shocking proyect for an industrial chemical factory in the zone of expansion of the port, which it promised would be the largest factory producing "biofuels" in the whole of Spain, and amongst one of thelargest in Europe). The Port Authority made no effort to inform local residents directly, despite the fact that the local Spanish law governing industrial activities lays down that such factories should be located at least 2000 m from residential areas. In a bid to take advantage of public support for the environment, the President of the Port Authority (Mario Flores) declared that the end product (biodiesel) was totally non-contaminating and posed no risk for the neighbouring residential areas. He made no mention of the thousands of tons of highly toxic and inflamable raw materials that the factory proposed to use each year, such as the 20,000 tons of metanol, 3000 toneladas ofsodium hydroxide, a million kilograms of sodium methylate and nearly 2,500,000 kg of hydrochloric acid and phosphoric acid which the massive industrial plant would require each year.

File:Area Influence AlicantePort.jpg

In October 2006, Alicante Port Authority announced in the local press that the biodiesel plan would be sited 2000 m away from the residential zones of the city, the minimum distance as required by the relevant Act, but the reality was that the factory's site was nearly half of this distance, some 1200 m from the urban centre of the city.

Nor did the Port Authority say a word about the storage of thousands of tons of normal diesel fuel in enormous tanks in the port extension zone next to the factory, which represented undermining the Accord made in 1995 when the previous fuel tanks were removed to a safe zone far from the city in the 90's.

Accordingly, it was no surprise that in October 2006, when the Port Authority announced that it was requesting the construction licence from the City Council, the opposition from the local residents in Alicante was immediate.

The residents organized themselves in an association called the 'Platform' in Defence of the Port which received massive local press coverage and they organized various public marches and y convocaron varias demonstrations in the centre of Alicante with thousands of people, protesting against this plan to convert the port extension zone from becoming an illegal industrial estate.

In November 2006, a local rightwing newspaper survey showed that public opinion even amongst their readers was in favour of biodiesel as an alternative fuel, but strongly against the plan to locate a massive factory of this nature right next to thousands of homes. Meanwhile, under popular pressure, the company behind the project admitted that the industrial factory would only be some 1,200 m from the city's population, but justified this location by asserting to the local press that the port extension zone was an industrial estate so the stone’s throw distance from the city’s residential areas was not important.

In December 2006, the residents' Platform for the Defence of the Port, together with other associations both neighbourhood associations and opposition political parties (such as Izquierda Unida and thePSOE socialist party (the party of the national government)signed a manifesto rejecting the use of the port as an industrial estate given its proximity and importance to the city. TheUGT trade union and the local green party also voiced their public opposition and stated that the port was not a suitable place to try to construct an industrial estate, given the distance of less than 2000 m from the urban centre of the city and the fragile nature of the coastal zone.

On 28 December 2007, the Port Authority declared to the local press that, given the citizens' rejection of the biodiesel plant in the port, it was considering postponing another controversial decision regarding the transfer of the 4 cement dust ("clinker") silos situated on Quay 14 to the port extension zone, since it did not want to create new public outrage.

On 22 March 2007, Alicante City Council made its decision to reject the licence application for the biodiesel chemical factory Project, citing merely the fact that the projected factory breached the height limit (25 m, well over the general limit of 12 m of the Special Plan of the Port) and the fact that it lacked the necessary traffic impact studies and road distribution licences for fuel distribution, without needing to touch on the fact that the industrial Project also breached the 2000 m minimum distance from the closest residencial zones, or other important defects in the procedure.

In August and September 2007, despite the declarations to the Press of December 2007, Alicante Port Authority put itself in the centre of another huge public controversy with its publication of five more massive industrial projects for the port extension zone – for the unloading of more than 100, 000 thousand tons of clinker cement dust a year, its storage in up to 21 towering “mega-silos” between 26 m and 55.2 m in height (plus unloading apparatus some 5 m high on the top of each mega-silo) with 4 huge plants (up to some 21 – 25 m high) for processing, bagging and distributing the cement. The proposed mega-silos 55 m high in the project of Sabanci Cements (reported to be equal to a 15-20 storey building in height), as well as all the other mega-silos are incomparably taller than the 4 silos currently situated on Quay 14, which are only 8 m high (and within the Port Extension Zone general limit). Unsurprisingly, the social reaction to these brutal plans has been even stronger than the case for the rejection of the biodiesel industrial factory.

According to the opposition parties (the PSOE, the Izquierda Unida, the Bloc), residents’ associations from across Alicante and the residents’ Platform in Defence of the Port, the height of these planned mega-silos and factories, hugely in excess of the 12 m general limit, would serve to create an eyesore on the beautiful Mediterranean coast of Alicante – a towering wall of massive silos on the city’s shores (where no other building in the zone is more than 12 m high). Due to the unacceptably close proximity to the residential zones, this wall of mega-silos would serve as a sound board, which would reflect the current traffic noise plus (all the additional noise generated from the plants and associated heavy trucks) back into the residential zones of the city, causing an enormous environmental nuisance. Neither the Port Autority nor the projects have conducted any overall study of the associated environmental pollution (in particular the visual impact and the noise pollution) of all these proponed projects, and the only “solutions” they offer are to paint the mega-silos (but not the turquoise blue of the sea, rather stone or dust grey, to match the colour of the cement dust). One of the projects, for the highest of the mega-silos, suggests “camouflaging” the towering structures nearly 60 m high and “deflecting the visual perception” by building an attractive “landmark” building nearby. The resulting incredulity and indignation of the residents has been enormous.

In a press declaration by the citizens' Platform, the group declared that the citizens of Alicante are neither invisible or stupid. Izquierda Unida revealed that the “clinker” dust, the prime ingredient for Pórtland cement, is widely recognized even by the very same cement companies as a health risk with potentially dangerous components.

These projects have caused a huge rejection by a large part of Alicante’s population, both individuals and organized groups (such as the Platform in Defence of the Port, the AVV Gran Vía Sur Puerto Alicante, la AVV San Gabriel–and with the support of various local political groups (e.g. Izquierda Unida, the PSOE,Ezquerra Republicana, theYoung Greens, Vecinos por Alicante, together with other ecologists and the CGT trade union in the Port there is solid opposition to this overall project to convert the port extension zone into a massive, ugly industrial estate. Despite all of this, the Port Authority of Alicante (in particular its new President Sergio Campos, and it’s former President Mario Flores) persist with their damaging and illegal plans to create an industrial and cement zone where none was ever publicly planned. More than 2000 residents, their neighbourhood associations, and the mentioned political groups, have filed objections to the legality of these projects, which they consider to be illegal and ill-considered. Many thousands of local residents have vouched to fight against this attempt by Alicante Port to create a cement and industrial estate within metres from their homes, an industrial estate where the Port Authority wishes to locate activities classed by law as nuisances, unhealthy, and dangerous, completely ignoring the combined effect on the city and on the coastal landscape.

The various quays and sites within the Port Extension Zone, where it is proposed to locate these plants and mega-silos, lie between 600 m and 1,200 m from the closed residential zone of the city of Alicante. This breaches the minimum distance of 2,000 laid down by Article 4 of the Spanish Regulation dealing with nuisances, unhealthy, harmful and dangerous activities.

The objections also centre on the fact that the Port Extension Zone, funded by EU subsidies, does not have the obligatory environmental impact assessment reports and permissions to operate as an industrial zone, breaching Article 1(3) of the Spanish Law 6/2001 on Environmental Impact Assessments (“EIA”), (implementing the the European Environmental Impact Directive) which states that “Public or private projects, consisting in realising constructions, installations, or any other activity included in Annex II (Annex 2 Grupo 7. Infrastructure Projects (a) Projects to create industrial zones ) of this Decree shall be submitted to an EIA in the manner laid down by this law, as the environmental body with local jurisdiction shall decide. This decision shall be reasoned and published in accordance with the criteria established in Annex III.” Further, Article 1(3) of the same Law contains an alternative provision stating that “That established in the above paragraph shall not apply to those projects for which the regulations of the Autonomous Communities, in the exercise of their competences, either require an EIA or in any case, establish thresholds in accordance with the criteria of Annex 3, to determine when such projects must be subject to an EIA.” In spite of this, the Port Authority has no such EIA for the overall Project to convert a subtantial part or all of the Port Extension Zone into an industrial zone. No such EIA (for the creation of the whole zone, that is, all the cement projects, the biodiesel industrial production factory, the liquid fertilizer industrial production plant together), and in the absence of such an overall assessment it can only be assumed that no reasoned and published decision based on the criteria established by Annex III (which explicitly requires taking into account characteristics of the projects such as the size of the project, the overall effect in addition to other projects, pollution and other negative impacts, the risk of accidents, with special consideration of clouds of dust particles suspended in the air. In regard to the siting of projects for the creation of industrial zones, Annex III stipulates that the environmental sensitiveness of the geographical areas that might be affected by the projects shall be taken into account, in particular, the current use of the zone, with special attention to be paid to: coastal areas (as in the case of the Port of Alicante), nature reserves and parks (as in the case of the nearby Site of Community Interest, the Island of Tabarca, recognised by the European Commission) for its enormous environmental importance, areas of great democratic density (like the residential neighbourhoods of Alicante right next to the zone) and zones of historical and cultural interest (such as the coastal landscape of Alicante). This beautiful coastal landscape is also protected by the European Landscape Convention 2000, Spanish Law 4/2004 of the Autonomous Region of the Communidad of Valencia and European Directive 92/43/EEC. Rather than consider the legitimate objects of the citizens, Alicante Port Authority’s President declared that the construction of the cement dust mega-silos was decided in 1992, although this supposed agreement was not mentioned in the previous President’s declarations to the press in December 2006. The new President, Campos, has stated that the number of new silos is negotiable but insists that a minimum height of 12 m for the various mega-silos is technically necessary merely for the trucks to be able to drive underneath for the vertical loading of the cement dust. On top of this height, he has stated, sit the silos themselves (currently 8 m high on Quay 14 of Alicante Port). Against what the Port says is this “technically necessary height” of a total of 20 m, the residents say that the silos need only be raised some 4 or 5 m from the ground in order to vertically unload into trucks, and adding the 8 m high silos above this would give a total of some 12 m, within the general height restrictions of the Port, and would allow the re-siting of the 4 silos on Quay 14 with the minimum visual and environmental (including noise, cement dust and traffic) impact.

Clouds of dangerous clinker cement dust caused weekly by open air unloading in the Port.

In October 2007, the Residents’ Association AVV Gran Vía Sur filed complaints about the environmental pollution caused by the constant clouds of clínker cement and carbon unloaded in the open air in Quay 17 of the Port, filming a a video shocking video evidencing the total lack of environmental control by the Port Authority. Although the Port Authority has recognised that hermetically sealed silos are necessary to prevent escape of clinker cement dust in order to prevent the formation of dangerous clouds of particles suspended in the air, for more than 10 years they have taken no preventative measures at all to reduce this level of contamination. Incredibly, while pushing for the construction of up to 21 mega-silos only a few metres away in the Port Extension Zone, they have made no proposal to replace the open air mountains of clinker and carbon dust with strict controls of when unloading may take place (not on days of high wind, not if dust is reaching residential areas) with covered systems to prevent the escape of the dust into the air, as in the Spanish ports of Santander, Malaga, Bilbao, Ferrol, Huelvaor La_Coruña. In the face of complaints and concern shown by the local population, the Port Authority insisted that this dust was of no risk to health – until the Platform of residents and their environmental lawyers pointed out that the cement companies themselves admit that the dust contains dangerous substances and that clouds of the dust in the air must be avoided. The President of the Port publicly insisted that the environmental controls were already "rigorous" until this video and the local opposition forced him to admit that the opposite is the case, and the Port needs to clean up its act.

File:AlicanteCoastBetweenPortandUrbanova.JPG

The coastal strip from the Port to Urbanova and beyond designated for "Alicante Southern Coastal Park": the question is whether the views will be of the pristine sea, Alicante Castle and the Island of Tabarca, or of an towering industrial estate in the port extension zone.

In mid-October 2007, the “Conselleria” (Environmental Department) of the Autonomous Region of Valencia announced a detailed project to recuperate the maritime façade of Alicante, including the urban façade facing the sea – running 15 km south along the coast from the old Station of Murcia, passing the extension zone of the port, and continuing through to Urbanova, and Santa Pola. This project involves the creation of the “Alicante Southern Coastal Park’ beginning from the zone immediately in front of the port’s reclaimed land, complete with a continuous “green pedestrian corridor” connecting the city with the wetlands to the south, an area classified as having international natural importance. The Directorate-General for Landscape in Valencia will be in charge of the project, and the zone is officially recognised as being of undoubted natural, cultural and visual interest. The Environmental Department has declared that this requires careful protection and management in order to reap ecological, social, urban and economic benefits from the coastal strip.

Towards the end of October 2007, the President of Spain’s State Ports body, Mr Mariano Navas, added his voice to the debate about the future of the port of Alicante. He emphasized the “extraordinary situation of the port of Alicante” in light of its location right next to the city centre, and requested that the port’s governing body and the Port Authority exercise a great “environmental sensitivity” in which “environmental questions should not be seen as a burden falling on the head of the management” but rather “an additional element to take into account, in a completely internalised manner, in taking-making”. He urges the Port Authority to bear in mind that “the port simultaneously represents the maritime facade of a city, and that this requires a careful treatment”.

On 31 October 2007, the Administrative Board of the Port Authority nevertheless granted the internal approval for the 5 projects for the installation of cement dust plants and mega-silos on the city’s coast, without answering any of the thousands of oppositions filed, with no amendments at all to the projects in light of the oppositions, with no heed paid to the words of the President of State Ports, nor indeed to the plans of the Environmental Department or even to the opinion of Alicante City Council. The PSOE members on the Board voted against the projects, while the Mayor and his City Council representative on the Board abstained after calling on the Port Authority to modify all the projects to lower the height of the buildings to within the 12 m maximum set out by the Special Plan for the Port. The Mayor also called on the Port Authority to seek an immediate solution to the clouds of dust occasioned by the open air unloading of cement in the port. The Administrative Board, however, passed by a majority the motion to pass the projects without modification to the City Councils Planning Department to decide whether construction licences should be granted for such projects so close to the city centre and to be built right in the centre of the city’s coastal strip. The vote of the Administration Board of the Port Authority, taken without responding first to any of the thousands of citizens’ objections, has increased and European environmentalists’ indignation.

On 4 November 2007, the President of the Port Authority, Sergio Campos, gave an interview in the national press about the various problems and the local opposition encountered in relation to the new plans for Alicante port. He indicated that the biodiesel chemical plant may have to be located elsewhere (given that the City Council rejected the application for its construction licence due to the fact that its 20 m planned height exceeds the 12 m general limit for the port and due to the lack of studies and licences for the distribution by road of the end product). Campos also admitted that “the port’s concern for the environment is grows stronger day by day” in light of the pressure from the residents, the city, and local and national government, and recognised that “Alicante is a commercial port not an industrial port” but he insisted again that the mega-silos are necessary since they are a “relocation” of the 4 silos 8 m high in Quay 14. He also recognised publicly, for the first time, that at present “clinker cement dust and carbon are moved by grain and bulldozer, and that if there is a strong wind it is true that clouds of dust are produced”. He admitted that the measures set out in the 2003 environmental permission for the port (use of chutes, screens, closed conveyer belts, watering systems, taking measures to prohibit unloading on days of high wind, measuring dust particles in the air during unloading) had not been taken but he stated his “desire” to implement them in the future. He made it clear that these open-air activities are planned not only to continue but to grow in future, and that they are not being substituted by the plans for the mega-silos and cement dust plants. On 6 November 2007, the editorial of a local newspaper summed up the situation by stating that “What is clear is that once built, these silos for the storage of cement will substantially change the appearance of the city of Alicante, above all when viewed from the sea or from the coastal roads, and the projects will eclipse the Castle of Santa Barbara and the “Cara del Moro”, the historical symbols of Alicante city, relegating them to a secondary position”.

Rather than perform their obligation to read and respond to each point made in the citizens’ objections to the 5 projects, on 13 November 2007 the Port Authority published a single reply in the Official Bulletin of the Province – Alicante – no. 222. The Port declared that the objections in relation to the excess height of the silos and plant, and the impact on the coastal landscape, were “mere opinion”, regardless of the fact that height is a scientifically objective measurement as against the limit of 12 m, and the fact that the Port’s own claims (that the towering constructions will be “aesthetically integrated” into the landscape to make no visual impact) seem to have far more to do with opinion. In an Open Letter dated 15 November 2007 to Juan Ferrer, Director of Alicante Port Authority, a local industrial engineer left no doubt as to the Fac. that the Port Authority had conveniently not answered many objections, and had distorted the nature of a great many other objections so as not to take the trouble to consider and answer them.

On 14 November 2007, two Spanish MPs tabled a series of questions to the Spanish Congreso (Parliament) regarding the projects and the aim to convert Alicante por tinto an industrial estate, and requested the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to clarify the position of his government. On 23 November 2007, the residents’ Platform in Defence of the Port, together with 7 other neighbourhood and local citizens’ organisations representing over 20, 000 households in the city, visited to the Register of Alicante City Council (‘Ayuntamiento’) and filed more than 10,000 signatures against making the Port extension into an industrial estate so close to residencial neighbourhoods, as well as copies of more than 2,500 objections to the cement projects for the 17 towering silos and 3 cement factories. The signatories criticized the Port for “carrying out the planning for its development and growth as if it were a private enterprise governed only by the profit motive, and seeking loopholes or ways in which not to comply with the law in force”. For this reason, the Port of Alicante had caused a “frontal collision with fundamental citizens’ rights, such as to right to health and safety”. They noted that “the only hope for Alicante at an institutional level lies with Alicante City Council, who should do all in their power to defend the rights of the citizen in Alicante.”

Other recent history

Other landmarks in recent history have been the opening of the European Union's Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the construction of the polemic "Ciudad de la Luz", a series of facilities meant to sponsor movie industries to set base at Alicante.

No recent history account can be complete without addressing two sociological phenomena of the past few years. Immigration has already been described in this article, and the second residence building industry has transformed the looks of the city, bringing both along a new set of problems, such as environmental concerns on one hand and fear of social problems once the construction industry boom comes to a halt.

Transport

The Alicante Tram connects the city with outlying settlements.

Famous citizens

• George Washington Montgomery, (1804-1841), born in Alicante, United States diplomat and editor/publisher of the first Spanish language translation of the works of Washington Irving.
• Carlos Arniches (1866-1943), novelist
• Gabriel Miró (1879-1930), novelist
• Antonio Gades (1936-2004), Flamenco dancer
• Juan Escarré (1969), field hockey player
• Belen Rueda, actress
• Miriam Blasco, judoka Olympic winner
• Isabel Fernandez, judoka Olympic winner
• Vanessa Romero, model and actress
• Maria Jurado, model and actress
• Esther Cañadas, model and actress
• Pedro Ferrándiz, basketball coach
• Hannibal Laguna, fashion designer
• Francisco Rufete, footballer

Twin towns

• Nice, France
• Carloforte, Italy
• Herzliya, Israel
• León, Nicaragua
• Matanzas, Cuba
• Oran, Algeria
• Riga, Latvia
• Toyooka, Japan
• Wenzhou, People's Republic of China

External links

• Official website of Alicante
• Official website of the Diputación Provincial de Alicante Template:Es
• Dates and numbers of the municipalities of Alicante Province. Diputación Provincial de Alicante, Area of Presidency, Documentation Unit Template:Es
• Website of the Universitat d´Alacant