Island to lose 30´000 obsolete hotel beds

Rafael de Lacy, head of the Council of Majorca's planning department, said yesterday that 30'000 obsolete tourist beds on the Majorcan coastline will be demolished under the new Plan Territorial, and will be replaced by beds built on the second line. He said that personally he would have preferred a more ambitious plan which would have removed between 90'000 and 100'000 beds from the coast line. De Lacy made these statements when answering a question addressed to the Council by Jaume Font of the PP (conservative Popular Party). Font criticised the plan and said that the ruling Pact was “technically broken and only functions by artificial respiration.” The department head admitted that it would be very complicated to carry out the demolitions “because the process for carrying out reconversions like this is not clearly defined in the planning regulations.” In addition to the reconversion of hotel beds, De Lacy explained that the Plan expects the population to grow by 101'000 persons over the past ten years. This is considerably lower than the 180'000 persons allowed under the strict application of the planning regulations. Regarding controversial work such as the second ring road, De Lacy said it was essential for the Plan Territorial to include the reservation of land for the future. He expressed his conviction that the plan would obtain the favourable votes of all the parties of the Pact if it was shown that this infrastructure will be necessary in the future. “The second ring road is not a motorway,” he said. De Lacy also spoke of the future growth of the port and said that all passenger and goods traffic should be transferred to the Dique del Oeste so that the city could make use of the Moll Vell as a leisure centre. The Council of Majorca approved modifications to the budget to include last year's surplus of 17.2 million euros. The change was approved despite the opposition of the PP, who said that the budget had been modified on no fewer than 23 occasions in the first five months of the year. The PP did vote in favour of the budget for the Works and Services plan which comes to 15 million euros (5.7 per cent more than last year). This is the plan under which the Council of Majorca helps town and village councils to carry out major works which would otherwise be outside their possibilities.