Passeig Calvia, or more appropriately Via Margarita where it meanders as a monument over the achievements of the mayoress Margarita Najera, is now mentioned as one of the reasons why taxes in Calvia must be raised by 10% next year.
As my photo from El Toro is indicative for how Calvia spends its taxpayers' money it is easy to understand the need for more taxes. On this particular stretch the road lights and the walkway lights stand in line with altogether four light posts per 30 meters.
Will the mayoress make a tradition of turning the Margarita Lights on for Christmas and then, for Christmas only, after she has seen the electricity bill for the around the year use for a few hours a day of 2100 mostly unnecessary lamp post decorating a little used walkway or will she then raise the taxes further? The same money would pay for the yearly electricity consumption of around 100 families and that probably represents more people than the future average number of darkness users of Via Margarita.
It is also easy to think of many alternative uses of the workforce required to maintain the 20'000 new trees and the 150'000 new plants and bushes, not to mention the weeding which, by the way, is already far behind. As we all know too well, water and electricity are in short supply on Majorca so the planning and building of Passeig Calvia really puts in question the foresight and good judgement of those responsible. Via Margarita is maybe a typical example of how local governments get so carried away by the possibility of getting projects to a high extent financed by European Union subsidies so they miscalculate their own costs (or choose not to see them).
Wictor Forss
Magaluf