News Archive from Andalucia & Costa del Sol
In association with
Week June 28th to 4th July 2001
GREEN OASIS IN FUENGIROLA
Fuengirola's old zoo closed its doors in 1989 as it had not paid its dues to the Town Hall and was in an abandoned state. The new zoo opened its doors to the public on Tuesday. Designed by the specialist company Rain Forest it brings a green oasis to the concrete centre of Fuengirola. The new zoo has three zones: the island of Madagascar, equatorial Africa and South East Asia. All the animals in the zoo come from a European programme and Rain Forest have created three scholarships at Málaga University.
EIGHT YEARS WAIT OVER
Marbella Town Hall has announced that the new municipal theatre will open its doors to the public during the first fortnight of July. So ends a wait of eight years for one of the most eagerly awaited for facilities in town. The Town Hall says the only work remaining to be completed is the installation of the canopy at the front of the building.
SAFETY ON THE BEACHES
One of the Costa del Sol's most popular resorts, Benalmádena, has announced that more than 100 people will be involved in ensuring the safety of bathers.
From June 15 the town has had in place its 'Plan of Vigilance' this involves a team of 20 volunteer lifeguards, 16 vigilantes, 15 police students, 89 local police plus 40 members of the Guardia Civil of the Sea. The latter for the past three years have had a base in the Puerto de Deportivo and in the last year alone have been involved in around 500 rescues.
Benalmádena's deputy chief of local police, Antonio Alveraz, said the 89 local police officers would largely be involved in dealing with traffic accidents, brawls and rowdy behaviour. Sr. Alvarez also pointed out that their statistics showed that the majority of the offences were carried out by the less well-behaved British citizens.
LESS BUT NOT WORSE
Estepona's Civil Defence unit will be organising safety patrols on the beaches of Cancelada and Isdabe until September. Thirty-eight people will be involved in patrolling the beaches and operating the lifeguard service. This is less than last year but the Civil Defence assures bathers that they will be in fact operating a more extensive service.
TOUGH NEW ROAD SAFETY LAWS
The new law for road safety in Spain includes harsh new measures against those who drive at more than 180 kms/hour or who drive while under the influence of alcohol. Those offending will find their driving licence automatically withdrawn for three months and face a 100,000 pesetas fine. The old legislation was 50,000 pesetas fine. The DGT traffic authorities rejected the argument that increasing the upper speed limit on Spanish roads to 140 kms/hour would be safer. The traffic director genera, Carlos Muñoz Repiso, did say, however, that Spanish roads and car safety measures had improved considerably.
MOBILE PHONES BANNED
Using a mobile phone from the car will now be completely prohibited - even after stopping on the hard shoulder or when not in motion. Hands free devices will be permitted however. Three serious faults in two years will lead to a three-month driving licence withdrawal.
MONORAIL PLANS FOR BENALMADENA
The specialist transport company, Train, has presented the first projects to Benalmádena Town Hall for the proposed monorail link in the town. The idea is to connect the railway station at Arroyo de la Miel with the Puerto Deportivo in Benalmádena Costa. It is hoped that this link will solve the traffic problems in the municipality.
The project will cost 5,500 million pesetas to construct. There will be nine stops in all and the complete journey should take just 15 minutes. The plan projects that 1,500 passengers will use the service each hour. The Councillor-Delegate of Olimpo, Luis Bonel, said the monorail would generate travel between the station and the port without increasing pressure on the town's roads.
COME TO THE FAIR
Casares is taking a step back into medieval times. On July 8, the town will hold a medieval market in the streets around its ancient Moorish castle. Stallholders will be selling their crafts and wares whilst dressed in period costume. At 22.00 the Classical Theatre Company of Madrid will stage the play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'in the XVII century church of La Encarnación.
KOOL SUMMER
Estepona Town Hall has drawn up a cultural programme for the summer. Amongst the events to be enjoyed by both residents and visitors alike is theatre, exhibitions, concerts by the municipal band, dance and opera. The star attraction will be the pop concert of the famous American group Kool and the Gang, who will appear at the bullring on July 27 at 22.00.
NEW MEGA ATTRACTIONS PARK
A project to build a grand attractions park in Málaga is currently being muted by the city council who say that they expect a sum between 60,000 and 80,000 million pesetas to be invested in such an idea. City Councillor for trade, José Luis Ramos, has confirmed that there are two companies interested in establishing such a park in Málaga and that now a search is underway for a suitable site.
Council contacts had shown that local businesses and banks were prepared to finance 20 per cent of the large scale project. Land close to the city's ring roads of the Guadalhorce Industrial Estate was being looked at he said. The council ahs calculated that a park of these characteristics would attract as many as two million visitors a year, the current Tivoli amusement park in Benalmádena attracts 900,000.
GRANADA SCIENCE PARK TO EXPAND
With the third phase of the Granada Science Park only opened to visitors on Friday last week by the President of the Junta de ANDALUCIA, Manuel Chaves, the management of the complex have already revealed plans for the next and last stage of the project. This consists of increasing the site of the park next to the Genil River by 34,000 square metres and adding further attractions at a cost of 4,000 million pesetas. A new visitors reception centre is seen as one of the main requirements as current facilities are already overstretched at busier times. A 'macroscope' will allow visitors to climb inside a lens of a microscope and see items as if they were inside a scientific microscope and a 'Biodome' will allow visitors to experience different climates found across the Mediterranean.
Once complete the Granada site will become the 'grand campus of scientific promotion for the South of Europe' and hold all the records of scientific research carried out in ANDALUCIA.
GRANADA DAM TO HELP COASTAL AREAS
The area of land in the coastal regions of Granada Province used for agriculture will improve greatly once the new dam at Rules comes into service, according to a new report from the Society for Social Economic Studies in ANDALUCIA (ESECA). The report estimates that the area of land used for cultivation will increase by 4,500 hectares. Benefits to local agriculture are estimated to reach more than 300,000 million pesetas over 25 years.
The new dam will result also in a large increase in employment with 2,800 new jobs expected to be created over the next 25 years. The report also highlights the importance which must be given to the correct distribution of the water collected by the new dam, noting that the southern costa area of the province should receive the largest part.