Is there some more evidence of discord between the parties ruling Palma town hall? Just days after the announcement that the town hall was looking at introducing charges to park motorcycles in the ORA blue zones, the idea has been rejected by the mayor, Antoni Noguera. "Motorcycles will not pay. As long as I am mayor of Palma, such a measure will not apply."
Noguera is with Més and he took over as mayor from José Hila of PSOE in the summer. The transport and mobility councillor, Joan Ferrer, is a member of PSOE, and he is largely responsible for drafting Palma's plan for sustainable urban mobility. Charging motorcycles is something that Ferrer said was being contemplated under this plan, although he added that there was not an intention to introduce payment in the immediate short term.
The mayor says that there will be a modification to parking regulations for motorcycles in the Acire restricted parking zones, but this will be all. Payment for the ORA zones is not being considered, he insists.
As soon as the announcement was made last week, there were howls of protest on social media. The town hall was accused of seeking to create another source of revenue and of going behind the backs of the public.
It is unclear, therefore, whether Ferrer was speaking out of turn and perhaps on behalf of PSOE or whether the plan for charging motorcycles had general agreement in principle. Noguera seems to be suggesting that it was the former.