Spanish Ayes Sun, Sea, Sand . . . And a Neighbourhood Where Everybody Knows Your Language. Torrevieja Promises All This, and More. But What's Life Really Like in This Little Bit of Spain That Scots Have Made Their Own?

Summary

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IN the local market, a man with tartan shorts stands, holding a bag of apples. He wants to ask the price, but doesn't know enough Spanish to make this simple request. Yet he is not a holiday-maker.

Though he comes from Kilmarnock, he has lived here for 12 years.

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Spanish Ayes Sun, Sea, Sand . . . And a Neighbourhood Where Everybody Knows Your Language. Torrevieja Promises All This, and More. But What's Life Really Like in This Little Bit of Spain That Scots Have Made Their Own?

Welcome to Torrevieja: a small corner of Spain where the menus are authentically Mediterranean, but the palates remain stubbornly British.

Set on the Costa Blanca in south east Spain, this former fishing village is now home to 142 nationalities and a population of 100,000, a large proportion of whom are Brits. The economy benefits from salt exports, which are dwarfed by the income from property sales. Bricks become houses overnight in what is a relentless, and unprecedented, boom. In the last decade, vast orange groves have been flattened to accommodate those staking their claim for a place in the sun. For the local authorities, it has been a quick fix, with a slow, unexpected come down.

But many of the incomers now want to put an end to the tide on which they arrived on, to seal off their corner of this foreign field. A new political party of expats is gaining strength and will fight for their rights in the forthcoming Spanish elections.

Peter Atkins and Stephanie Tebbutt know none of this as they step off the plane in Alicante. Having sold everything they own back in Blackpool, they plan to make their life in Spain, and are here to examine the property market. A sales representative meets th...

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