Penedès News in English

Penedès is diversity – just compare the snow chaos which they suffered in Anoia and Alt Penedès with the five or six snowflakes which fell over us in Garraf and Baix Penedès. But it is also unity – four comarques west of Barcelona which historically belonged to one and the same administrative unit – a vegueria. Here is a summary of local news from this area, for the period March 4-9, 2010, starting with Penedès as a whole, and then split by comarca.

Penedès

The snow chaos around Barcelona has been in the news all around Europe, and highland Anoia has suffered a lot. School bus services were cancelled since a big part of the road network was not driveable. In Vilafranca, some secondary schools cancelled classes for one day. There were interruptions on the train lines FGC R6 (to Igualada) and Rodalies R-4 (from Sant Vicenç de Calders to Manresa, via Vilafranca) plus on the funicular up to Gelida. The town council of Gelida opened a sports pavilion, so that people who would otherwise have been stuck in their cars on the tollway AP-7 had a warm place to spend the night. As a contrast, Rodalies R-2 South (to Sant Vicenç de Calders via Vilanova) was the only Barcelona commuter train line to maintain full capacity throughout the Monday. (LaVanguardia) (Avui) (AD) (ElPunt) (ElPunt) (ElPunt) (DdV) (VD) (3de8) (3de8) (PD)

The tourism bodies of Alt Penedès, Garraf and Baix Llobregat have decided to promote our coastline as the “Coast of Barcelona – Sea, Modernism and Penedès” (Costa de Barcelona - mar, modernisme i Penedès). Until now the same comarques were promoted as “the Coast of Garraf” (Costa del Garraf). Personally, I must admit to have thought that Garraf was the last part of Costa Daurada and believe that it says so on the exit signs along AP-7. (ElPunt) (VD) (EW)

Pere Regull, CiU mayor of Vilafranca, and Jordi Aymamí, Entesa (PSC) mayor of Igualada are exchanging favors. The latter promise to support Vilafranca’s request for the high-speed train AVE to stop in the town, while the former will work for the new railway line tren orbital to come as close to Igualada as possible. (ElPunt)

The Institute for Penedès Studies entered the vegueria debate and demand that Penedès be united in an eighth vegueria. (ElPunt)

Among the improvements which the Generalitat has announced after taking over the responsibility for the commuter trains Rodalies, in Penedès there will be two new weekend connections on R-4 and one new Saturday connection on R-2 South. (LaVanguardia)

Ecologist groups of Penedès call on politicians and society not to turn the area into a logistic platform and to let parts of the AP-7 be free of charge instead of building a new motorway, A-7. (3de8)

Garraf

The remodelling of passeig de la Ribera in Sitges started and during the first phase the focus is on improving the sewers. (ElPunt) (VD)

The works on passeig de la Ribera, the creation of youth club in the building Parc del Rocà, improvements in the rugby stadion and new elevators from the train station up to Poble Sec are the main projects in which Sitges will invest the € 2,6 million received from the Spanish government program for job creation (FEOSL). (ElPunt)

The remodelling work of the historical parts of Vilanova i la Geltrú sees delays of about 1,5 year – above all due to rain. (DdV)

A seminar on the status of translations to Catalan of children’s books was organized by the Vilanova branch of UPC and the Victor Balaguer Museum. (ElPunt)

Alt Penedès

A lorry flipped over and caused an accident with three other cars near Gelida. Nobody was seriously hurt, but AP-7 was temporarily closed off. (LaVanguardia) (3de8)

An accident near Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, with eight vehicles involved but without serious injuries, resulted in the AP-7 being closed off. (LaVanguardia) (3de8)

The town council of Vilafranca del Penedès has closed the bidding process for building an extension to the emergencies part of the hospital. (ElPunt)

Baix Penedès

The area Clos del Rectoret of Calafell plus parts of Segur are among the spots of Catalonia where analogue TV signals are not being broadcast any longer although the digital version (TDT) does not yet reach the households. (PD)

A man who keeps six circus tigers in a cage trailer in Cunit has started discussions with the Generalitat on how to improve their situation. (ElPunt) (3de8)

The court of el Vendrell has ordered custody for a man, suspected of a murder attempt with a bottle during a burglary in Santa Oliva. (Avui)

Anoia

Igualada based English teachers start the bilingual “Partner’s Magazine” with the objective to motivate grown-ups to practise their English. (AD)

MercAnoia – a series of trade fairs to boost business in small towns of Anoia – are this year planned to coincide with local festivals in order to build synergies. (AD)

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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 onwhat, 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 usually 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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