News Archive from Andalucia & Costa del Sol
In association with
Week May 31st to June 6th 2001
REGIONAL ROAD SUPPORT
Regional government has announced plans to invest 2,250 million pesetas on roads in Málaga Province. Most of the new investment comes at strengthening the road surface in places, which have seen subsidence and will be spent over this year and next year. Regional government delegate for public works, Enrique Salvo Terra, was in Málaga to announce the plans. He said a total of 200 roads would see improvements.
BEANALMADENA MUSEUM TO BE REMODELLED
Benalmádena's Municipal Museum of Archaeology and Pre Colombian Art is the third most important in Spain. It ranks after the Museum of American Art in Madrid and the Ethnologic Museum in Barcelona. Having completed the cataloguing of all the items in the museum, the Town Hall feels free to start remodelling the building. Overseeing the work will be archaeologist Gonzalo Pineda. He has been appointed by Benalmádena's Mayor Enrique Bolin, to succeed Felipe Orlando, the museum's founder, who died recently.
EXTENDED LIBRARY
Benalmádena Town Hall has also announced that it intends to enlarge the library in the village. It has identified a suitable site near the library and will ask the next council meeting to approve the change of classification for the plot of land.
HALIFAX COME TO MARBELLA
The Halifax, the leading mortgage lender in the UK, is to open an office in MARBELLA. The bank has operated in Málaga since 1999 during which time it has serviced some 2,500 clients, 90 per cent of whom are British. The director general of Halifax Hispania, Alejandro Garcia Balcones, said they had decided to open in MARBELLA because the town is 'the main attraction for the British, be they residents or tourists".
QEII IN MALAGA
One of the largest transatlantic liners, the Queen Elizabeth II, came to Málaga Port on Monday of this week. The liner was in port just ten and a half-hours during which time most of the 1,740 passengers on bard enjoyed visiting the Costa del Sol and Granada. This year a total of 200 cruise liners will bring 120,000 passengers to Málaga and today (Thursday) we see three of them at the same time. The 159 metre 'Ausonia' arrives from Mallorca; the 186 metre 'Silver Shadow' comes from Mahón and the 149 'Zafir' on route from Barcelona. The opening of a new western jetty just two weeks ago has made room for the arrival of the larger liners.
FUNDS FOR WATER IMPROVEMENTS
Málaga Province is to receive an estimated 140,000 million pesetas from central government for the improvement of water quality. The money will be spent over the next eight years on the long awaited integrated waste water plan for the Costa del Sol, which he said would be completed by next year. In the short term work would start this year on new collectors in Torrox and a new treatment plant in Nerja would be finished. Coastal improvements on the Ponienta beach in Málaga, the Torrecilla beach in Nerja and on the paseo maritimo in Fuengirola would also be completed shortly.
CLUB DISNEY FOR SAN ROQUE
San Roque Town Hall has reached agreement with Spanish national TV channel Tele 5, for their children's programme Club Disney to be broadcast from the municipality this summer. The programme will be based on the area between Sotogrande and Torreguadiaro. The TV station has chosen this location because of its attractive situation and the high number of summer visitors.
ANY OLD IRON
The old railway station in Almeria, the main example of iron architecture in the city from the end of the XIXth century, has been included in the guided visits, which the city council organises under the title 'Almeria para concerla - Almeria get to know her'. The old railway station was built in 1893 in order to facilitate the transport of iron from Sierra de los Filabres and the Alquife mines to Almeria City from where it was exported by sea.
GIB AIRPORT IN THE AIR
The Provincial Deputation of Cádiz has backed a call by La Linea Town Hall for joint use of the Gibraltar Airport. The intention would be to rename the airport Costa del Sol-Campo de Gibraltar and to create an infrastructure including customs and a passenger terminal by the Princesa Sofia park at the border. The Brussels agreement, which suggested joint use of the airport, has been rejected by the Gibraltar governments although there have been recent discussions between La Linea and the Rock on closer use of the airport facilities.
CROS DOUBLY POPULAR
The Director of Crocodile's Park, Enrique Pietro, says he expects double the number of visitors so see the crocodiles once they move from their present home in Cártama to a new location in Torremolinos. The town hall has ceded to the crocodiles 16,000 square metre plot of land near the Aquapark on a 50 year lease. The cost of their new home will be 400 million pesetas. The new crocodile park will take eight months to construct and should be open to the public next Easter. The Cártama park, which has up to 60 crocs, welcomed 240,000 visitors last year but Sr Pietro anticipates that numbers will exceed 400,000 once they make the move. Apart from being a major tourist attraction the park also receives 20,000 students and 10,000 pensioners each year.
RURAL TOURISM ON THE UP IN MALAGA
Inland tourism in Málaga will increase by eight per cent a year for the next four years according to a new report from the provincial government. The area has seen an unprecedented growth in tourist and other economic activities, mainly in the districts of Antequera, Ronda, the Axarquia, Guadalteba and the Guadalhorce Valley. This has been revealed by a report 'Inland Tourism in Málaga' written by economists from the Málaga professional college, which collates the results from research, carried out over six months. The study claims that most of the foreign visitors to the inland of Málaga are British, German, Belgium's and Dutch, they spend about 5,000 pesetas a day and are generally satisfied with their stay.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
The town of Jimena de la Frontera in the Campo de Gibraltar will hold its first international music festival in June. The programme for the festival was recently launched in London when the towns mayor, Ildefonso Gómez, attended a press launch at the CERVANTES Institute. The ambitious festival, which has largely been organised by the expat community in Jimena, will run over five days starting at noon on Saturday June 16 and closing at midnight on Wednesday June, 20. There will be mid-day, afternoon and evening performances in various locations around the municipality with many of the major events taking place in the beautiful convent of Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles, which dates back to the XVII Century.
INTERNATIONAL REPERTOIR
Amongst those taking part in the festival will be the London Brass Virtuossi, the Chamber Orchestra of the European Union who will give four performances, the Garden Opera company who will stage Mozart's 'The Magic Flute at the Cortijo la Limas, pianist Elena Riu and piano and violin duo Zoe Mather and Matthew Trusler. Apart from the classical music concerts there will be a multi flamenco line-up, plus jazz concerts by Chano Dominguez and Hot Toddy, which will largely be performed in the Plaza de la Constitucion. Gibraltar's Rooke Band will also be participating. Many of the fringe concerts are free.