The £12m King’s Bastion Leisure Centre was heaving with clientele within minutes of opening its doors for business earlier this month.
The ambitious project centred on the refurbishment of the bastion’s defensive walls and combines cutting-edge modern architecture with a careful regard for heritage.
The innovative use of steel and glass, retains the bastion’s distinctive features to create an avante garde installation that mixes old and new in a balanced blend.
The aim was to create a contemporary design to complement rather than replicate the old walls.

The leisure centre itself is contained within the boundary of the bastion but does not infringe on it. Areas of wall that were lost inside the old power station have now been recovered and restored.
“The glass is the secret of the whole design concept,” said Carl Viagas, the Gibraltar Government’s heritage officer who has played a key role in the project. “Only the glass actually comes into contact with the walls.”
The leisure centre is in fact “a box within a box”, and because only the glass panels come into contact with the stone walls, the old bastion appears visually untouched.
Throughout the complex the design by Dutch architect Stefan Ritzen creates a strong impression of space and light.
The Leisure Centre currently contains adult and children bowling facilities, an ice skating rink, a well-equipped amusement arcade, a pool and snooker lounge, a multi-station internet lounge, a youth lounge and bar with further games and entertainment facilities such as big screens and others, a nightclub and an adult terrace bar.
It will shortly also boast a two-screen cinema and a personal fitness centre.
The restaurant, bar and bowling facilities are operated by private sector operators. The rest is operated by the centre’s own management and by the Sport & Leisure Authority.
The Gibraltar Government said its vision and objective is to make the Leisure Centre a place of safe and enjoyable entertainment for all the family, where people of all ages can come and enjoy the amenities in a relaxed and safe environment.
In the days following the opening, the complex was packed with families curious to experience this significant new addition to Gibraltar’s social life.
Speaking at the opening of the centre, Chief Minister Peter Caruana, who admits taking a close personal interest in the project, was clearly pleased with the result.
“I am no expert on such matters, but I have travelled extensively [and] I believe that the recovery and restoration of the King’s Bastion as a heritage monument, and the sensitivity and care with which the Leisure Centre has been built and integrated into the Bastion, is by global standards, an outstanding achievement in the management, conservation and putting to use of heritage,” he said.
And he added: “I know that some people genuinely interested in heritage in Gibraltar have been unable to agree with the Government’s decision to demolish the Rosia Tanks to make way for affordable housing.”
“I hope that they will accept this magnificent recovery of the King’s Bastion as some, though I understand insufficient, compensation.”
“The Government remains committed to the uncluttering and refurbishment of our walls and bastions as has already happened at Casemates, Orange Bastion, Chatham Counterguard and now here at King’s Bastion.”
“From King’s Bastion we will continue to move south to Wellington Front, the whole of which will be refurbished, restored and put to modern civic uses.”

Now all the Christmas bills are in and the credit card statements have been read with varying degrees of horror, the usual bout of post-festive financial indigestion has been sharper than usual on account of the rising strength of the euro.
The toys, trinkets and other must-haves bought in the stores and boutiques of La Cañada and Jerez which were so appealing in the pre-Christmas build-up, do not look such bargains now. Although the euro has seen a near doubling of its value against the US dollar to $1.50 since it hit a low of 85 cents in early 2003, the euro’s strength against sterling has been considerable too. (see graph)

In theory this should be good news for Gibraltar’s local traders as the Rock’s consumers become more selective due to increases in the cost of living coupled with deteriorating economic conditions. Traditional habits though, such as the weekend shopping trips to Spain, are proving harder to break despite the fact that the cost of such trips has risen by 20 per cent since last year, once the strong euro and price increases are factored in.
However Gibraltar’s traders are losing out for another reason. Whilst the euro has greater buying power for Spaniards and other shoppers visiting the Rock, the rate of exchange charged by some local traders when a customer pays euros in cash, is quite simply exorbitant. One complaint received by the Chamber from some recent visitors made the following comment about being charged a conversion rate of E2: £1.
“This is outrageous treatment coming from a locality that has such dependency on tourism. Shame on Gibraltar!”
The market rate at the time was £1: E1.34.
We all know that the euro is not legal tender in Gibraltar and it is up to the trader to decide whether or not to accept payment in euros and they are free to set whatever exchange rate they wish. But charging a rate 50 per cent higher than the market rate seems pretty excessive.
“Needless to say,” the disgruntled visitors said on their departure, “we shall not be returning to the Rock and we will be sure to relay our experiences to all our British and foreign friends.” Is this really the impression we want to create among visitors? It seems clear that the majority of local traders are reasonable on the exchange rate but what can be done about those few traders who think visitors are fair game to be so brazenly exploited?
Inevitably the temptation by some traders to augment profits by levying excessive exchange rates can be great, but the impression left on the visiting tourist does tremendous damage to Gibraltar’s reputation over the time.
A quick straw poll conducted recently, revealed most of the local traders in shops, bars and restaurants who were asked, use a rate of between E1.33 to E1.60 for the those customers paying euros in cash.
One difficulty some retailers face, is keeping up with volatile changes in the exchange rate. Some set their exchange rate for the year and to change the rate on their cash tills can necessitate calling a software technician, which involves additional cost. Also, local retailers accepting euros in cash, have to pay commission on converting them back into sterling at the bank.
Other retailers can be hampered if their merchandise shows both sterling and euro prices on the product’s label. Changing the exchange rate at the till would only confuse the shoppers.
Shoppers who do not have any sterling cash should be advised that the exchange rate for cash will not be as competitive as the market rate. They would then have the option to go to a bureau de change or pay euros in cash. A reasonable loading might be around 15 – 20 per cent over the bank rate.
The easiest way round this of course, is to encourage shoppers who do not have sterling cash to use their credit card instead. Credit card companies charge
a rate that is far closer to the market rate at the time the transaction takes place. It may not be as profitable as a one-off cash transaction charging 50 per cent above the market rate, but neither will it risk damaging the reputation of Gibraltar as a shopper-friendly destination. And, what is more, they may even come back again.

The Annual Careers Fair at the end of February was billed as the most successful one to date.

Support for the fair from local employers has been growing year on year since the first event was held two years ago at Bayside School. In fact, the level of interest has been so great, that the event had to find larger premises last year to be able to house all the employers who wanted to take a stand. The event has been held for the last two years in the new Sports Hall at Victoria Stadium. The fair was organised jointly by Bayside School, Westside School and the Gibraltar College.
This year, the growth has continued with around sixty local employers ranging from Government agencies such as the Health Authority and the Fire Service, to dozens of private sector companies attending. Interest about career options available in Gibraltar was correspondingly high among pupils approaching school leaving age.
Pat Orfila, one of the organisers from Bayside School, was delighted by the response from both employers and pupils alike: “It’s great that employers can see the value of showing what career options are available to pupils when they leave school or graduate from university. Gibraltar’s economy is much more broadly based than it was 20 years ago and the variety of jobs and careers has expanded greatly.”
Derek Sene, Deputy Managing Director of Barclays Bank which took a stand at the fair said: “Our presence in the careers fair further reinforces our commitment to the youth of Gibraltar. Choosing the right career is a significant milestone in anyone’s life and we want the students to feel that we are right there with them making things as easy as possible for them.”
Young Enterprise, a new initiative that is being introduced this autumn at the College of Further Education, also had a presence on the Barclays stand which is primary sponsor of Young Enterprise Gibraltar. Mr Sene said, “The Young Enterprise scheme is new to Gibraltar and introduces youngsters to the business world. The Department of Education has expressed an interest in the programme and the course is to run at the College of Further Education later this year.”
Dee Murphy, Human Resources Manager at Ladbrokes Gibraltar said, “We are delighted to have attended the Careers Fair for the past three years and each year the event has grown in terms of the number of stalls and the level of interest.
This event provides Gibraltar-based businesses with the ideal opportunity to inform the public of the differing job roles available and career opportunities within an organisation.
This year’s event was very well attended and from the moment the doors opened, our stand was inundated with young people and their parents wishing to know more about future career prospects with our company. We found the evening to be both enjoyable and worthwhile and would highly recommend participation to other businesses.”
Similar sentiments were highlighted by Maria Vencino Ramos from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was among sixty or so organisations present at the fair: “Once again the fair has proved to be an excellent showcase to illustrate to students the diverse and exciting career options in Gibraltar. I am sure students and exhibitors alike benefit greatly from the event.”
Next year, the organisers are looking for even more local employers to be present to make this annual event a continued success.

Young Enterprise coming to Gibraltar
Young Enterprise is the UK’s largest business and enterprise education charity. The charity’s main role is to forge links between educational institutions and commerce. Its mission is to inspire and equip young people to learn about business through real life examples and by showing students how to set up and run their own business whilst still studying. Many head teachers cite the biggest barrier to making the Diplomas a success is engaging with and developing the necessary links with business.

Young Enterprise is planning to begin running a pilot programme at the Gibraltar College from September this year. A steering committee has been set up to introduce the programme to Gibraltar. The Chamber is represented on the steering committee of Young Enterprise and in due course the Chamber will be seeking Business Advisors from members of the local business community. Business Advisors give useful real world experience to students and it also helps company employees with their own personal development.
www.young-enterprise.org.uk

Two Slovenian chess champions took a break from the Gibraltar Chess Tournament when they visited the offices of Gibtelecom, the main sponsor of the event. The visit was the idea of the Chess organisers, whose interest was sparked by the fact that Gibtelecom is now half-owned by the major Slovenian telecoms company, Telekom Slovenije.

The two players were at both ends of the age spectrum. Anna Muzychuk is already an international chess star at the age of 17 and has been playing since she was three years old, representing Slovenia at the remarkable young age of 15. The more mature Alexander Beliavsky, is a Slovenian grandmaster whose games are frequently used as examples in books on chess. Alexander was originally born in the Ukraine and has been a former Soviet champion and participated in many famous Linares tournaments.
Anna attends something like ten tournaments around the world each year, yet still finds time to study at university and pass her exams.
The players were accompanied by Manuel Weeks, a former captain of the Australian men’s chess team and also the official press officer for this tournament which is now one of the main open events in the international chess calendar.
The meeting, at Gibtelecom’s Europort offices, was friendly, informal and wide-ranging.
With the help of Francis Lopez (Business Director), Adrian Ochello (Sales & Marketing Manager) and Widette Gomez (Corporate Affairs), the Company’s CEO Tim Bristow, gave the players an illustrated presentation on Gibtelecom – including tracing its origins back to the Falmouth to Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph line in 1869 – and also on the wide-ranging activities of their own country’s predominant service provider, Telekom Slovenije.
The guests showed a lot of interest, especially in the internet services of both Gibraltar and Slovenia, as computers play a major role in professional players’ equipment. They have an enormous database of games played so that they can analyse the way a prospective opponent makes his or her moves, as well as to follow commentaries on matches. Gibtelecom is providing technical support for such internet services for this Gibraltar tournament, held as always at the Caleta Hotel.
It wasn’t all technical though. There was a lot of talk from both sides about Slovenia itself - Tim, Francis and Adrian had all visited Slovenia in the course of their duties, and Tim said the Company was encouraging as many of the management team as possible to get to know Telekom Slovenije, and their mobile subsidiary, Mobitel, for themselves.
The picture that emerged, from the Slovenians and the Gibraltarian side, was that Slovenia is not only a beautiful country but also one that is still comparatively safe and where English is widely spoken at various levels.
Tim and Francis agreed that Gibraltar and Slovenia have another thing in common – the love of good food. A feature of Slovenian gastronomy is the taking of slow meals – made up of a large number of small courses that are spread over four or five hours. They also produce their own wine, every last drop of which is consumed within Slovenia.
The picturesque charm, however, has not prevented Telekom Slovenije from making the country one of the most advanced in Europe in the field of telephony and internet services.
After the 45 minute meeting, Gibtelecom arranged for their guests to see something of the Rock and also the salvage works on the New Flame wreck off Europa Point.

The Gibraltar Classic Vehicle Association has secured for its Club members the services of Argus Insurance.

So for all you avid classic car owners, by simply joining the GCVA you too can enjoy reduced rates on your classic car insurance from Argus in Gibraltar.
“With policies offering various options including all risks, agreed valuations, along with limited annual mileages, Argus have provided significantly more affordable cover for the owners of classic cars, which, in reality do very little “mileage” each year.” said Stefan Nicholson, President of the GCVA.

Andy Baker, MD of Argus commented, “this type of insurance cover for the classic vehicle has been widely available in the UK for many years, so we saw this as a natural addition to the portfolio of Argus insurance products. In turn this supports the GCVA with its membership, which is a very modest £20 per annum.”
Classic car owners cherish their vehicles and invariably keep them under lock and key:They tend only venture out on “sunny days and Sundays” and so from an Insurance point of view they would appear to be a good risk.
That said, should anything untoward happen to one of these babies, then finding spares can be harder work, as most of them went out of production many moons ago!

‘I would like to thank Mr Alwani for yet another example of his magnificent generosity,’ said Minister for Health Yvette del Aqua as she accepted a £500 camera for the KGV Activity Centre

The patients with an interest in photography had been making good progress - including an exhibition of their work at the John Mackintosh Hall last September, where the quality of their work attracted a lot of praise.
The only problem was that the Centre, part of the facilities provided by personnel at the KGV hospital, did not have a camera - so the patients had to rely on the generosity of staff members who lent their own equipment.
Eventually, the staff wrote to Kishin Alwani, chairman of The Alwani Trust, with details of the camera they thought would be the most appropriate, and asked if the charitable trust, funded by Mr Alwani, could help.
So it was that he came along to the hospital to present a £500 Nikon camera to Health Minister Yvette del Agua at the Activity Centre, in the presence of staff and patients. She in turn presented the camera to one of the patients, a member of the photographic group, as shown in the photos.
The Activity Centre (formerly known as the Occupational Therapy Unit) has various groups of up to twelve patients, covering such interests as arts & crafts, gardening, weekly outings, cooking, and an elderly group who mostly enjoy getting together for bingo.