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E W N 2 - 8 January 2014 / Costa Blanca South
Look back on 2013
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PLANS to turn the old Terminal 1 at El Altet Airport into a major outlet area with shops, restaurants and leisure facilities have been unveiled. Alicante company Aerovillage has presented the €40-million project to the Spanish Airports Authority (AENA). With the support of foreign investors, it aims to build a 40,000-squaremetre complex, with 109 shops and restaurants, a hotel, indoor karting track and an area for flight, skiing and racing simulators, which is expected to create 650 jobs. Since the arrival of the new terminal at El Altet, with capacity for 25 million passengers per year, the
old Terminal 1 is amongst the buildings for which AENA is seeking private investors. Aerovillage began talks with AENA back in 2011, but the project has still not been approved. The plan for the commercial centre
DRRDL
Terminal plan aired TERMINAL PLAN: From planes to shops and leisure. has been well received in the region, since many families travel as far as Madrid for similar shopping and leisure facilities.
Y MA
May 1 Issue 1454
RETROSPECTIVE
Fewer hospital beds during the summer ELCHE General Hospital plans to close around 60 in-patient beds during the summer months of July, August and September. The purpose of the closure is to ‘divert’ the staff assigned to these hospital wards to the rest of the health centre in order to avoid having to recruit to replace staff on holiday leave.
Hailstorms batter a wintry Alicante A SUDDEN storm took the Alicante province by surprise as within minutes sunshine gave way to black clouds as rain and hail stones battered Alicante city. Surrounding municipalities and towns also felt the full force of the elements. In the city, 26 litres of water per square metre fell in 15 minutes. According to Professor of Human Geography at the University of
Alicante, Jorge Olcina, the hail storm occurred as the result of the formation of a strong convective cell which happens when warm air rises and cool air sinks. If there is a sufficient amount of supercooled water, accumulation of ice can begin in the clouds forming hail. He said the cold pool in the atmosphere results in cooler temperatures than of late and
unstable weather in the province for several days. South of Alicante, rainfall was more evenly spread, with 13 litres per square metres falling in Torrevieja and 12 litres in Elche. Areas were affected with flash flooding as roads were brought to a standstill. Murcia region was also affected with the weather more resembling winter. Snow was reported on high ground and storms took out electricity supplies in Lorca.
The 60 beds which will no longer receive patients from July 1 will be from the General Surgery, Digestive and Respiratory departments. In addition, hospital activity will be lowered to the partial closure of the beds in the Short Stay Unit, where 10 of its 20 beds will be closed for the holiday period. The Outpatient Surgery Unit will also close in August. Hospital management justify the closures by saying that since the opening of the Vinalopo Hospital in 2010, it has significantly eased the burden of care from the General Hospital and the need for summer beds is greatly reduced due to the lower activity in the surgical departments.