When getting a job really is a lottery!

THERE is an element of luck in every job interview.

But securing the position to renovate the park and an old mill below the castle in Priego de Cordoba was taking it to the extreme.

So great was the demand for the lucrative 4.1m euro contract that the town hall has been forced to resort to a lottery to pick the winner.

After whittling down a total of 127 applicants for the job, the town hall was unable to pick out a winner from the final 20 companies in the running.

“So we had to do it this way,” mayor Maria Luisa Ceballos revealed, adding it was the first time that such a big project had been solved this way in Cordoba province.

“It is not the best way but we can’t think of another method,” she explained.

The four phase project, which has been in the pipeline since 2004, will provide space for new attractions including an Archaeological Museum. Despite the lengthier than expected selection process, the project – part financed by the EU – is expected to be completed by the end of next year.