In April last year, a representative of the local police in Pollensa said that “we are tired of being told lies”. “As municipal employees, we deserve agreements being complied with.” Tomeu Cifre was the mayor at the time, and he was accused of allegedly showing a lack of respect to the police.
There was a dispute over pay, and the Pollensa Half Marathon was at risk of being called off because police couldn’t guarantee any more than six officers; twenty were needed. Urgent discussions were held and the race was eventually able to go ahead.
At time of writing, the 2023 half marathon on April 2 is not happening. The reason is the same as last year - pay. Police representatives claim that they haven’t received any overtime supplements this year. The whole force, with the exception of one officer, has refused to work the extra hours needed to allow the race to be staged. The police add that a private security company can’t step in, as only they have the authority to control traffic and close roads.
It would seem that there is no going back on this, the organisers, the Half Marathon Association, having stopped any more registrations; 74 people had registered, 36 of them from mainland Spain or overseas. The association recognises that most of the non-resident runners had booked flights and accommodation for what should have been the fifteenth staging of a half marathon that has been enjoying a growing reputation.
Well, that reputation is going to take a hit. One wonders if runners will be prepared to take the risk in future. Participants will rightfully be annoyed, while locally there is a good deal of indignation, and it is aimed at the town hall and not the police.
Commentators on social media haven’t been slow in drawing attention to other items of expenditure. One concerns the salary increases (to the maximum allowed) for executive councillors, including the mayor. Another relates to councillors’ trips - in recent days to the ITB Berlin fair and to the presentation in Los Alcázares, Murcia for the Seaplane Splash-In (to be held from April 28 to May 1). As one person has put it - “the town hall is a travel agency”.
Paying for culture in Pollensa
Also going back a year or so ago, I posed this question: How many cultural/social centres, none of them actually in existence, does any one village need? This was apropos the old bus station and the old football ground, Can Escarrintxo. Of these, the Can Villalonga bus station was the latest on the blocks. It has now been purchased, as has the house next to the old Cine Capitol (already purchased) and the football ground.
Valued at 2.4 million euros, former mayor Tomeu Cifre said that Can Villalonga represented a “great opportunity” and one that the town hall could not allow to be missed. The opportunity included a multi-use facility for cultural and social activities.
Maybe Pollensa does need all these spaces. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having them per se, but as has recently been highlighted, there aren’t such spaces elsewhere in the municipality. The port has the church hall and that’s about it, meaning that cultural events organised by the town hall are overwhelmingly in Pollensa itself.
“Emblematic” buildings, such as a one-time bus station, aren’t in the same supply in the port (unless one includes endangered old houses on the pinewalk), so one can perhaps understand the imbalance. Even then, when such purchases are made, there can often be an issue of some sort, as is the case with Can Escarrintxo. The opposition, Junts Avançam, not opposed to buying the property, has again nevertheless pointed out that town hall officials had themselves issued unfavourable reports regarding valuation and existing regulations of what is a “rustic finca” that is highly limited in terms of development; it has cost 550,000 euros.
Common fronts - for and against in Alcudia
A “common front”, it is said, has been formed for the restoration and environmental recovery of Alcudia Bay’s so-called ecological corridor, which basically consists of Estany des Ponts (the big lake, aka Lago Esperanza) and the Maristany wetlands. The three-million euro ‘RestaurAlcudia’ project will be paid for out of EU funds. It will “re-naturalise” some 54 hectares by, for example, improving the condition of habitats, eliminating invasive vegetation and expanding drainage channels.
The common front includes the Balearic and Spanish governments, the Council of Mallorca, Alcudia town hall, the University of the Balearic Islands and WWF Spain. A good and worthy conservation project, it’s heartening to know that there can be a common front at a time when one is singularly lacking regarding the mainland electricity cable.
Joan Groizard, the Cambridge-educated former senior official at the Balearic environment ministry and now director-general of the Spanish Energy Agency, said the other day that the cable is essential for energy transition and that its siting in Alcudia is necessary because of the security of having a second cable remote from the existing one that enters in Santa Ponsa. He added that any work of this type will arouse concerns and controversy. Alarm is sometimes “generated from ignorance”, but of course there must be “an environmental and administrative procedure” for the best solution.
Quite, but opponents of the cable aren’t aware of this procedure or the best solution. I’ve been informed that a Red Eléctrica boat has been carrying out surveys of the Pollensa Bay seabed, opponents being dead against the cable entering via the bay. Has the boat been surveying Alcudia Bay as well? It’s argued that there is a route the cable could take in Alcudia Bay that would avoid posidonia sea grass. Entering at the port would make sense, as the existing cabling infrastructure to the substation by the Es Murterar power station could be used. Common front? Well yes, there is, one that’s against Pollensa Bay.