I am confident that everyone will be relieved to know that Juan Ramon Martinez, Councillor responsible for cleaning the streets has proudly announced that since the "brown brigade" have been on duty they have fined 25 people for not picking up their dog mess - obviously not their own but that of their dogs! The fines are 150 euros, which is good but they have dedicated a policeman for this task!

Now don´t get me wrong, it really is an issue with irresponsible dog owners, but surely to have a specially designated policeman on this when there are what I would consider "real" crimes in the resort is a travesty.

National Police campaign last summer

Only last summer the National Police ran a campaign warning people about the "peamen" on the street of Benidorm. They handed out leaflets and spoke to many passers by - I stayed with them and was amazed at how many people were unaware of the scam, both Brits and Spanish. I thought that everyone knew but obviously not.

They were pressing to have the law changed to make it a criminal offence so enabling the police to hand out massive fines and prison sentences - but last week there were still many of the gangs around on the streets of Benidorm.

Always busy - even out of season

As the holidaymakers start arriving extra care and precautions need to be taken. Antonio Mayor, President of the hoteliers Association HOSBEC has predicted that bookings for this Summer are already outstripping last years figures - which did not fall below 91% between the months of July and September. Over 2 million Brits will visit the resort, by far the biggest nationality but both the Portuguese and Russian markets are growing.

 There will be 2 weekly flights from Lisbon and Porto in Portugal to Alicante this summer and more direct flights from Russian cities too. Presently the Russians tend to favour Catalonia but the Tourism Board are attending many travel fairs to sell the Costa Blanca to this emerging market..... whether the crisis in Ukraine will affect travel remains to be seen. Benidorm was due to host the "Miss Ukraine" beauty pageant later this year, but this has been put on hold be the council for "fear of upsetting the Russian market" - being of Ukrainian heritage it is something I find regrettable.