Penedès News in English

Penedès is not only white wine and fabulous cava, but also four comarques (Alt Penedès, Anoia, Baix Penedès and Garraf) west of Barcelona which aspire to be a separate administrative unit – a vegueria. Here is a summary of local news from this area, for the period January 17-23, 2010, starting with the Penedès as a whole, and then split by comarca.

Penedès

C.P. Vilanova beats Caixa Penedès Patí Vilafranca 5 to 2 in the Penedès roller hockey derby.
(VilanovaDigital)

March 26 to May 26 is bidding period for those who want to make the functionality study of the new train connection (el tren orbital), to unite Vilanova i la Geltrú with Mataró, via Vilafranca del Penedès, Martorell, Terrassa, Sabadell and Granollers.
(El Punt)

February 3, the Institut d’Estudis Penedesencs, the Generalitat and the town council of Vilafranca del Penedès will commemorate all citizens of Penedès who were victims of the Spanish Civil War or the Franco dictatorship.
(El Punt)

Ryanair will, most likely, reduce the number of flights on Reus, the closest airport for many people in the Penedès. The Spanish government, on the other hand, has announced that it will invest less than earlier foreseen in the same airport.
(El Punt)(El Punt)

Of 735 positions as court judges in Catalonia, 152 are currently vacant. Vilanova i la Geltrú and el Vendrell are among the towns seeing the worst delays because of this.
(El Punt)

For geographical proximity, six municipalities in the northern parts of Anoia do not want to belong to a future vegueria Penedès, but to Central Catalonia, as of current plans.
(AnoiaDiari)

Garraf

Within 15 days, the reception of digital TV (TDT) will improve in the areas of Sitges currently having problems, i.e. Can Girona, Vallpineda, Quint Mar, Llevantina, Bòvila and Baix Fondat.
(El Punt)

The now opened extension of the elderly care centre el Redós in Sant Pere de Ribes doubles the capacity.
(El Punt)

The political parties of Sant Pere de Ribes protest against the fact that the main hospital of Garraf will be moved to Vilanova i la Geltrú and demand investments in the future long-term care centre Sant Camil.
(El Punt)

The second phase of the “Zapatero plan” will make it possible for Vilanova to cover the ditch of the stream la Pastera and to improve the street lighting along the beach Ribes Roges.
(El Punt)(VilanovaDigital)

One participant had his leg badly damaged after slipping under a carriage during the Tres Tombs of Vilanova.
(VilanovaDigital)

The inhabitants of la Geltrú complain that that they still suffer from high noise levels and indecent activities, above all during weekends.
(DiariDeVilanova)

The plan called VNG Nord Multiple City - consisting of housing, services and a technology park - is the winning proposal for how to develop the Eixample Nord, a planned extension of Vilanova.
(El Punt)

Alt Penedès

The invitation to macrobotellon – a huge outdoor (drinking) party – in Vilafranca del Penedès on February 27, has been accepted by over 1.300 people on Facebook.
(3deVuit)(El Punt)

The work to construct new accesses to the tollway AP7 from Vilafranca Nord and Gelida have been initiated and will make it possible for the inhabitants to only pay for the distance they actually drive. For those who enter at Vilafranca and exit at Sant Sadurní d’Anoia or Gelida, the drive will remain free of charge.
(3deVuit)(El Punt)

Vinseum – the wine musuem of Vilafranca – has awarded a grant to a linguistic study into the hyperboles and expressions used by wine experts.
(Avui)

Baix Penedès

Inhabitants of el Vendrell living close to the stream Lluc demand it be channelled through pipes to prevent that it again serves as a breeding ground for tiger mosquitos.
(El Punt)

A group of movie enthusiasts create a club in el Vendrell.
(El Punt)

The Festa Major de Sant Julià of l’Arboç is incorporated on the Generalitat’s list over cultural traditions of national interest.
(Avui)

The three municipalities l'Arboç, Sant Jaume dels Domenys and la Bisbal del Penedès join forces in a door-to-door project promoting recycling.
(Avui)

Regular users of the recycling station (deixalleria) of Cunit will not any longer receive rebates on the waste collection fees.
(El Punt)

Anoia

The municipalities of Anoia create a joint council to manage public healthcare.
(AnoiaDiari)

The group Amic del Rec protests againt a municipal zoning project claimed to destroy the spirit of a historic part of Igualada.
(AnoiaDiari)

The Igualada town council will create a new bicycle lane from avinguda Mare de Déu de la Pietat to avinguda de l’Estadi..
(AnoiaDiari)

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My objective with these summaries is to, in English, present news which might be of interest to expats living in anyone of the municipalities covered, but I do not claim that local news from, for example, Vilanova, automatically are of interest to the inhabitants of the other towns of Penedès.

The idea behind the format is to present all items as extended headlines, with a focus on what, who and where. Readers who want more facts, like the hows and whys, will have to follow the link to the source articles. The answers to when will be the time period stated in the opening paragraph.

The main sources are AnoiaDiari·cat, Avui, Penedès Digital, El Punt, El 3 de Vuit, LaVanguardia and Vilanova Digital.

L’Extra - the only news service which treats the Penedès as a united entity –and our local newspaper Diari de Vilanova, serve as inspiration, but are not presented as sources since their digital formats either are incomplete or do not allow you to link to individual articles.

The signature EW signals that I am personally the source of information. Any opinions expressed are my own. Earlier editions can be found under the blog label Penedès News.

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Technorati tags: Anoia, Barcelona, Catalonia, Garraf, Igualada, Penedès, Sitges, el Vendrell, Vilafranca, Vilanova,