The land by the Gesa building in Palma has been the subject of controversy for years. Town hall personnel are said to currently be working on a modification of plans in order to be able to stop building licences; they have until 21 December to do this. If a new plan has not by then been approved by the town hall, Endesa will have the right to build homes on seafront plots that cover an area of almost 38,000 square metres.
The planning for this land has been like a yo-yo. The previous PSOE-led administration under Aina Calvo (2007 to 2011) did one thing, the Partido Popular from 2011 did another, and now the current administration has another plan along the lines that the Calvo administration had envisaged but which was blocked by the Balearic High Court on the grounds that a change of use of the land (from being developed) was not justified.
The negotiations between the town hall and Endesa have reached a stage whereby the town hall will definitively give up any rights to the Gesa building (the courts have pretty much instructed it do so) and swap plots on the seafront with ones further back. The town hall does not want buildings on the frontline and prefers a green space with gardens instead.
The opposition Partido Popular is indignant at the way that the town hall has been going about this. Its spokesperson Marga Duran believes that there will in the end be homes on the frontline and that after twenty years of argument and millions of euros of compensation to which Endesa is entitled because of previous decisions, there has been a "great scam" and a "trick" played on the public.
Duran says that there are "secret negotiations" going on with Endesa but that it should be explained exactly what these are. What is clear, she adds, is that they will have an impact on taxpayers. She is calling on both the mayor, Antoni Noguera, and the deputy mayor for urban planning, José Hila, to resign.