Grand plan

A British businessman is resurrecting plans for a €1.2 billion sport and property development which he hopes will revolutionise the Costa del Sol.

The exciting proposal for the long-neglected Mijas race course site has been set out in a detailed 60-page master plan seen by the newspaper.

First revealed by the Olive Press juvenated plans will create thousands of jobs and ‘bring billions’ to the coast, it is claimed.

Mirage World of Sport chairman Anthony Arnold re vealed the ambitious new scheme will include ‘multi-use sports arenas’, an 18-hole golf course, ‘Europe’s largest football academy’, international tennis and cricket academies, as well as facilities for baseball and basketball.

The Midlands-based businessman said there were also plans for a commercial centre, two hotels, and a concert venue at the 250-hectare Hippodrome site, which has been closed for over a decade.

“I have been devoted to this project for several years,” Arnold told the Olive Press this week.

“It will create more than 3000 jobs, revitalise the local economy and bring 2.3 million visitors including many of the world’s leading sports stars from across the globe to the Costa del Sol,” he added.

BILLION PLAN: Sports are central to the scheme

COSTLY COCK-UP

A PAIR of company numbskulls who ordered 31 new trains for the Asturias to Cantabria rail line have been sacked after the rolling stock was too big to fit its tunnels. Cantabria president, Miguel Angel Revilla, described events as an ‘outrageous cock-up’. Rail operator Renfe said its rolling stock manager had been dismissed while track infrastructure company, Adif, also fired its technology inspector. Transport Minister, Raquel Sanchez, insisted the trains - costing €258 million - were still in the design phase, which will cut the extra expenditure to revamp the design. But the project is now expected to be put back two years adding an unknown cost to the price.