AND HERE IS THE NEWS…

….a light look at the latest local news with Caroline Manson

RD66 remains closed due to landslide

Following the recent heavy rains around several large boulders fell from the mountain onto the train track. Naturally SNCF have declared that the yellow train will not run until further notice but the fact that around 150m3 of boulders (some bigger than a car) still threaten to fall, means that the road below has also had to be closed until further notice.  The area of road is at Thuès-Entre-Valls but as the RD66 is the major road to the ski slopes, and this is peak ski-season, it is extremely frustrating for the holiday-makers and the commerces.  They had been hoping to reopen the road before the start of the half-term holidays on February 7th but this is looking unlikely.  For the moment light vehicles can access the ski-resorts via the RD117 (Fenouillèdes) and the RD118 in Ariège (Axat).

LeClerc supermarket cannot give away prizes

The LeClerc supermarket at Polygone Nord in Perpignan has a very surprising problem – it has a large stock of unclaimed prizes.  They have shared their dismay on social networks explaining how they spend a lot of time coming up with marketing ideas in the form of competitions, all of which takes time and money, only to find that the winners don’t come forward and claim their prizes.  Due to the Data Protection laws they have limited ways of contacting the ‘contestants’ so the prizes remain unclaimed.  Some of the prizes are just put back on the shelves but other’s, such as VIP experiences at USAP (for example) are more problematic.  

Suicide of schoolgirl

A 12 year old girl pupil at was found dead at her home on Friday January 23rd, having committed suicide.  Initial suspicions were centred around the possibility of her having been bullied at her school, Pierre Fouche College in Ille-sur-Tet, and the authorities have started internal investigations, but this week the Minister of National Education, Edouard Geoffrey, has asked the prosecutor to investigate reports of problems in the girl’s family environment.

Record levels of snow on the Canigou

The ski-slopes are now covered with a thick layer of deep, crisp snow – but unfortunately it seems almost impossible to get there at the moment due to the road closure.  You can, however, content yourselves with looking at the beautiful sight of the Canigou covered in snow – which was at a depth of 2metres last weekend and after this weeks’ snowfall it has now reached a depth of 2.35 meters – the deepest since 2009. 

Black day on the roads – Friday 30th January

Two people lost their lives on the roads last Friday in two separate incidents.  The first tragedy took place in the middle of the night when a woman in her forties who was walking on the D916 between Ille-sur-Tet and Nefiach was hit by a car and was pronounced dead at the scene.  The second accident was in the middle of Collioure when a 95 year old man lost control of his vehicle and left the road.  No other vehicles were involved.

Success for customs officers on the motorway

Another day, another drug smuggler foiled on the motorway between Spain and France.  Last Sunday the Mossos spotted two ‘shady’ individuals parked up and eating sandwiches on the rest area of Porta Catalana at La Jonquera.  As the officers approached the car they quickly buckled their seat-belts and tried to flee but only managed to move a few metres before they were intercepted.  During a search of the vehicle officers found a bag containing 12,000 euros and in the space normally reserved for the spare wheel they discovered several packages of cannabis resin – 19 kilos in total.  But this haul is not quite as impressive as the discovery that customs officers made on January 22nd when they were checking a BMW X1 on the Pia rest area on the A9.  The car was registered in Germany and the driver was travelling between Tarragona and Zurich and declared he was not transporting any goods.  The officers thought otherwise and during a thorough search discovered nearly 20 kilos of cocaine hidden under the passenger seat.  The driver was sentenced to 30 months in prison, a 10 year ban from entering French territory and a customs fine of 849,000 euros – the value of the goods he was transporting.