> The resident british community in the village doesn»t plan to return despite the ‘Brexit» > Two English couples speak to SIETE DIAS YECLA about their future plans after the referendum
Texto y traducción: Ramiro QUINTANILLA
Pronuncing their names, no one would say that these neighbours are established in Yecla»s census. Their names are Jeff and Janet Freeman, from the English city named Kent, ‘The Garden of England», and Roger Crossin and Rachel Clements, both from Rugby, the city where the famous sport was born and named.
SIETE DIAS YECLA has spoken with these british neighbours who lived in the village of Raspay for more than a decade, and they are censused in our Townhall. We spoke with them because we wanted to know about their opinion about the famous ‘Brexit» and the result of the referendum, which oblies United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
These affable British came to our land after their retirement in Great Britain, in Janet words: “We love Spain, we had already decided to come here before we retired, although our thoughts were to live much closer to the mediterranean coast, It was fortuitous coming to Raspay eventually. We were flipping through a magazine about Spanish coast and we saw an advert about houses sold in Raspay, so we decided to give it a chance, but we thougth the village would be closer to the beach. When we firt came here and we realised about our mistake, it didn»t matter, we had felt in love with this beautiful little village. And we have been living here for more than fifteen years!”.
Jeff and Janet were one of the first families that were established in this village. But they are not the last ones, after them, another fellow british citizens have come there, like Rachel and Roger. “We have always felt welcome since the first day, besides, there is a huge community of british people in Pinoso, Raspay and even Yecla, we are already 22 citizen from the United Kingdom, and also there are neighbours here from France, Netherlands, and even Poland”.
The British community in our county is still growing day by day, and It is the biggest european inmigrant group in Yecla.
We are talking now about the opinion of theses English couples about the famous ‘Brexit». As we all thought, these UK citizens who lived in the village of Raspay voted to remain in the European Union. As Jeff says, “we all voted to hold together, to remain in Europe, but, as we saw it wasn»t the result, although it was almost a tide. It is a little bit unfair. The people who decide to leave did it because the believe that this could be the solution of the current problems the United Kindong is suffering, although we think that this is not the way. Besides I opine that nobody knows the consequences of a decision of such magnitude. We can see that the littles towns and cities which suffer the problems of the inmigration the ones which voted to leave. On the other side, we can read some newspapers and see in the polls that almost a seven per cent of the population would change their vote now. But it is already done”.
Despite the result, the english neighbours who live in this Yecla»s village don»t think to abandon us, as Janet explains “we already notice the impact of the ‘Brexit», for example in our pockets, we have taken a twenty percent less of our pension because of the devaluation of the pound. Still, we are not going to leave Raspy, or Spain. We have been living here a lot of time, and this is now like our home. The majority of the british community of the village think just like us. We have always felt very welcome by Raspay»s people, and we are not going to abandon them”.
Janet, Jeff, Roger and Rachel are just four more neighbours like anybody else in the village, now we leave them after this english convesation while they enjoy the festivities that this place held in honor of the Lord of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin of the Inmaculated Heart. We can see them between the spectators, they enjoy, and they feel proud to be british citizens living in Yecla»s Village called Raspay.
