Jaume Font, the leader of El Pi, said yesterday that the Council of Majorca's holiday rentals zoning is a "disaster" and suggested that the Council is already backing down on it. This, he believed, will be demonstrated at a meeting with mayors tomorrow.
Font argued that the holiday rentals issue should be "very simple". Quality criteria should be applied to properties - houses or apartments - and it should be up to town halls to decide what is allowed and in accordance with the needs of specific municipalities.
He added that neither the president of the government nor the president of the Council of Majorca can know the situation in each municipality. In fact, what a town hall councillor with Més or PSOE thinks in Alcudia will be totally different to what councillors from the same parties think in a different municipality. Mayors and councillors are the ones who know their territories, and they should be the ones who decide on any zoning.
The El Pi president insisted that zoning is not the type of decision that can be taken from Palma. "There are interests that don't want it to be so, but El Pi will give ordinary people a way out. There are those who worry about Bitcoins. I worry that can people can eat every day."
Touching on the opinion poll that appeared at the weekend, Font noted that there are still fifteen months to go before the election. He made clear that his party's support will grow, as it is dedicated to finding solutions to people's "real" problems.
Meanwhile, Fornalutx is the latest town hall to announce that it will be making submissions against the zoning. Mayor Antoni Aguiló (Partido Popular) stated yesterday that the zoning had provoked an "avalanche" of criticisms by residents.
Fornalutx is one of the locations in Majorca which is deemed to be "saturated", meaning that any future rentals would be limited to sixty days per annum in an owner's main residence. Away from the urban area, there can be no rentals because of the protected rustic land in the Tramuntana Mountains.
Aguiló added that there are people with the same "political sensibility as the current pact at the Council of Majorca who are very angry with Mercedes Garrido (the councillor for land)".
Andratx and Santanyi are two other town halls to have announced challenges to the zoning.