Marbella Mayoress Angeles Munoz and the Delegate for Culture and Education last weekend (April 24) attended the inauguration of a new English school opened in Marbella by the British Schools Group.

The British School of Marbella is located on the street Jacinto Benavente (formerly Club Financiero), which was once administrative centre of Mayor Jesus Gil’s administration.

Costa del Sol region of the southern Spain is the preferred most destination among foreigners for relocation, and hence there are a number of international schools opened for the expatriate community in Marbella. British Schools Group has always been successful in offering high quality British-style primary education to students aged 5-11 in other parts of Spain.

International schools are best option for parents who are looking to impart bilingual education to their children. Marbella already has six international private schools and the new British School promises the same education standard and also plans to enrol up to 100 students of 2-6 years in the initial stage.

The School also eyes to bring curriculum for children of age 7-11 by 2010 and even students up to 18 years of age as soon as it expands its present infrastructure. Apart from the English National Curriculum, international schools also put emphasis on extracurricular and Spanish language programmes to ensure that all aspects of a child’s development are covered.

The British School administration in Marbella says: “Our students are exposed to a broad  and  challenging  curriculum drawing  from  the  best  of  British educational  traditions  to  instil  self discipline, independence of mind, high standards of behaviour and enjoyment of  their  time  at  the  school.

The British School of Marbella is located in the centre of town with easy access from surrounding areas. For more information, you may follow the address given bellow.

Address:
Calle Jacinto Benavente S/N
29601 Marbella
Spain
Tel: (+34) 952-779-264
Email: info@bsm.org.es
www.bsm.org.es

The dismantle of San Pedro Arch – used to mark the entrance of Marbella from the south – due to the construction of the underpass A-7 highway, has raised public eyebrows. Although all parts of this great structure are carefully kept, in case the Town Hall decided to rebuild the structure, the future of Marbella arch is still not clear.

It was the administration of Mayor Don Jesus Gil of the political party ‘GIL’ (Grupo Independiente Liberal) that in the year 1991 constructed two staggeringly beautiful white marble arches: one at the entrance from Malaga and other at the western point, approaching the town San Pedro de Alcantara. These were built to give a boost to the elegant and stylish image of Marbella.

These two mammoth arcades certainly later represented as emblems of Marbella; however, many also see these as symbol of then corruption prone GIL era. The reason for the removal of the arch as given by the Spanish government is safety and serious danger it may cause to passing traffic.

Presently, it’s up to the Town Hall, now ruled by the PP (Partido Popular), whether to bring back the structure or not. The councillor though asserts that if it was not for the excavation for the underpass, the arch would have been in its place.

Anyways, whatever the final outcome, the arch which was constructed with some €720,000 has had more significance in the life of commons and, of course, to the identity of the city. The government has made no official comment on the demolition or whether both arcades should be removed or not.

Going by the sentiments of people in Marbella, photographer Gary Edwards has launched a campaign “Save the Marbella Arch”. He writes in the facebook campaign page: “The Marbella Arch has been loved by residents and visitors since the early 1990′s. It is part of the history of the city and fans of this page agree it should be here in the 2090′s and beyond.”

“The Marbella Arch is an icon of Marbella. It is THE largest monument and it should stay where it is,” he further writes.

Due to political reasons, the City Council doesn’t come openly against the arches but it would really be interesting to see the final decision of Marbella Town. Moreover, the municipal government will also look into the cost of repair and reconstruction of the arches. As of now, only uncertainty prevails all around.

The Town Hall is planning to rebuild Marbella Central Market with some kind of structural improvements to make it more accommodating for business. The Mayoress of Marbella, Angeles Munoz, had a visit to the market complex last week where she talked about remodelling.

With an estimated budget of 700,000 euros, the project will repair all serious structural flaws that are affecting the market since it opened six years ago, due to irregularities committed in the past during its construction period.

The mayor in a statement asserted that this is complicated work and, the City wants to do in the shortest time possible to significantly reduce the inconvenience to both sellers and customers of the Market Square.

Municipal authority is trying to intensify all efforts to remodel the shopping area and it is expected that the shopping area will be ready by the end of next June and the town library which houses the exhibition, reopen its doors for the next school year.

“The fundamental objective of this project is to provide a solution to the serious problem of leaks that affect the building from its construction and even forced us, to get to City Hall to close the library was in a sorry state,” recalled the councillor.

The renovation measures include waterproofing of the roof, the hall perimeter and area of moist places along with improvement in the removal of sewage, construction of new cold storage of garbage, the allocation of a lift for the exclusive use of market traders and the installation of a new automatic door access, among proposed actions to be implemented in the Market Square.

Recently, the Marbella City Council has presented a project named “Marbella Open City” which is, in fact, a campaign aimed at corporate and social integration of the international community living in the municipality. It is an attempt to bring 137 nationalities living in Marbella into the business mainstream, directly or indirectly.

The project will include different course of action for better cooperation and participation of international community for the economic and urban development of Marbella. With the approval of Marbella PGOU Urban Plan, the town hall is encouraging investors to see Marbella as one of the key business points along the Costa del Sol.

Describing the international community as an “an enriching factor”, the City Council stresses that “Marbella Open City” is a mechanisms for achieving a bright future and in this sense, it is essential to further collaboration with different nationalities who are living in the city.

Moreover, Marbella mayoress Angeles Munoz closed the trading of NASDAQ in New York City and this was a part of institutional promotion, where Munoz had emphasised on the economic potential of Marbella on the New York Stock Exchange.

In addition, as per a Govt report, in the first quarter of this year the number of homes that have sold in Marbella and the subsequent payment of capital gains has been most significant since 2006. It is certainly a sign of recovering economy which is vital to regain the trust of investors.

Even the Annual Entrepreneur Assembly Marbella, to be held on April 14^th (at El Palacio de Congresos), is also a part of government initiative to integrate both local and international business by various means for the expansion of growth prospective of the town. All in all, “Marbella Open City” symbolizes an open market with numerous business possibilities to look for.

Laura Stanbridge, the Group Managing Director of CCG, in an e-mail release highlighted the constant effort of many in taking Marbella to NYC, when on March 24th Marbella Mayor Angeles Munoz rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange Headquarters.

This certainly holds significance in the promotion of tourism and investment in the region, and as an immediate effect, Delta Airlines will commence direct flights in May between JFK and the local airport in Malaga, Spain.

“We met with NYC & Co, the promotional arm of New York City; the CEO of the NYC Chamber of Commerce; other business leaders, and media outlets such as the WSJ, The New York Times, and leading travel publications. Over the next few months we look forward to seeing the results of these meetings,” said Laura.

“I am very thankful for the contributions from many of my friends in the US for helping by introducing me to their contacts and provide suggestions to our itinerary. Furthermore, I hope the success of this trip proves that members of the foreign community can make a valuable contribution to our city.”

“The trip to New York was so successful; there may be plans to promote economic development and tourism for Marbella in other regions…,” she added further.

The highlight of the recent trip was the closing of NASDAQ. You can view the photos from the event:
http://www.nasdaq.com/marketsite/marketsite-events-detail.aspx?fn=201003-close03242010.txt) and the video (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=108520502500243&ref=ss).