he Council of Majorca is seeking the demolition of the illegally built Monport apartment blocks in Puerto Andratx. The apartments form one part of the various strands related to the "caso Andratx", the investigation which stemmed from the 2006 arrest of former Andratx mayor Eugenio Hidalgo.
The Council's request coincides with one of the penalties demanded by the prosecution service. Former officials at the Andratx urban planning department are accused of having falsified documents. Building licences for the apartments have been declared void, so therefore the prosecution is calling for them to be demolished.
In the event that there is a demolition order, the town hall would be liable for having to fulfil this because of illegal licences granted by two former officials - Jaume Massot and Maria Isabel Sureda.
The Monport buildings are symbolic of the urban planning corruption that existed at the town hall. In June 2006, five months before Hidalgo was arrested, the Council of Majorca's planning commission approved the starting of proceedings against the town hall. This was because only four of the twenty apartment blocks were on urban land. The others were on a rural area of landscape interest.
After the Andratx affair blew up and then also because of economic crisis, building stopped, though some 80% had been all but completed.