On its website, the environmentalist organisation GOB states that "municipal cataloguing cannot legally intervene with the removal of the illegal El Bungalow restaurant building".
This is reference to recent approval at a Palma town hall council meeting to initiate procedures to include the beachfront building in Ciudad Jardín in the municipal catalogue of buildings with heritage interest. In other words, the town hall wants to give El Bungalow listed status and thereby ensure its preservation.
GOB say that this "surprising" approval was with the "sole intention" of preventing the demolition of a building in the public maritime domain which is deemed to be illegal in accordance with the Coasts Law.
The environmentalists explain that the restaurant is currently subject to an order of the national ministry for ecological transition, dated July 27 this year, which denies the request for a concession to occupy 437 square metres of public maritime domain for the purposes of a restaurant, terraces and access to these. There can be no occupation of this domain without authorisation from the competent administration, in this case the ministry for ecological transition (via the Costas Authority).
The Coasts Law, GOB continue, only allows preservation of buildings declared as assets of cultural interest. Such a declaration can only be made by a full session of the Council of Mallorca at the request of its commission for historical heritage. This means that municipal cataloguing would be an administrative act "without any legal value" in respect of the Coasts Law.