Of the various controversies surrounding the redevelopment of the Hotel Formentor, the most peculiar concerns 74,764 tonnes of waste excavated from the site. The particular peculiarity arising from this is what on Earth you do with all the earth. And earth it mostly is. There has been much talk of rubble, probably because rubble - nigh on 75,000 tonnes of it blotting the Formentor landscape - sounds rather more offensive than mere soil. There is some rubble but overwhelmingly the piles of waste - up to 6.5 metres high and like sand dunes - are earth.
Setting aside the fact that environment agents concluded that the waste mountains had accumulated in “irregular” fashion, the exact composition of the waste has now become less of a point of controversy when compared with the one to do with its disposal. One thing is for certain and that is that the waste has to go, the latest report from the environment ministry having stated that there has been “degradation” of the area and “obvious” environmental impacts.
The hotel company, Formentor Bay, and Pollensa town hall spent some months assessing what could be done. It was finally announced that the waste would be used in creating two new car parks. This, as the town hall was at pains to point out, would be in line with the circular economy, thus turning the waste into a virtue.
The ministry’s directorate for waste initially supported this plan. However, a week after issuing a favourable report, the directorate changed its mind. Among other things, it was now of the view that the movement of the waste wouldn’t be final, meaning that it wasn’t going to be immediately laid for the purpose of creating these car parks. Instead, new waste mountains would pile up elsewhere in anticipation of eventual use. The directorate said no, and not even for a short time. The proposed locations were both in flood areas, and mountains of earth (plus some rubble) are “not recommended” in such circumstances.
The waste directorate having vetoed the car park scheme, the town hall and the company are now lamenting that Pollensa’s circular economy will not benefit. Rather than car parks, the product of the hotel’s excavation will end up in a quarry.
Whether for circular use or for a quarry, the other big issue concerns the transporting of the waste. There is only the one way, and that is by loading it onto trucks. For the car park scheme, it had been calculated that six trucks would have to make a total of 3,466 journeys there and back, with this movement, if it were to be from June, being along a road that is subject to traffic restrictions.
A reason for the restrictions is that the road is one of the most sensitive in Mallorca from an environmental point of view. Yet these trucks, at some point, are going to have to use it.
Meanwhile, and coming back to car parking, Pollensa is one of 21 municipalities covered by something that goes under the grand title of the Road Mobility Improvement Plan and Development of Public Transport through Modal Interchange Parking. This is a Council of Mallorca plan which basically means a whole load of schemes for parking and then taking public transport. There are to be 500 parking spaces in Pollensa and Puerto Pollensa for this purpose (none of them using Hotel Formentor waste), though the exact locations have yet to be announced.
The councillor for mobility, Ivan Sevillano, says that “we have created this interconnected network of interchange car parks so as to be able to leave cars and get on public transport, the offer of which will have to increase”. And increase it most certainly will have to.
Has Santa Margalida finally lost the battle against the Can Picafort treatment plant?
It’s been dragging on for years, with Santa Margalida town hall having been firmly against the new water treatment plant in Son Baulo and the outfall that will be some three kilometres away in the bay of Alcudia. It now looks as though this plant will soon be a reality. The state-owned Aguas de las Cuencas de España company (Acuaes), which is responsible for the building of plants and is a division of the national ministry for ecological transition, has authorised the tender for bids to draft the project.
Agreement for this new plant was first reached back in 2003, it having been necessary because the plant next to the Albufera Nature Park had insufficient capacity. Santa Margalida was initially party to this agreement but town hall administrations since then - of different political colours - have been opposed.
No to the cable, now no to the solar park
Residents of Sa Pobla are following the lead of residents in Alcudia by hanging out banners in protest against a scheme that involves the regional ministry of energy transition. While the Alcudia banners say no to the mainland electricity cable, those in Sa Pobla say no to a solar park project that would occupy some 43,000 square metres of land with up to 4,500 panels.
The land in question is close to the sports centre off the road to Llubi. Residents say that it will have a serious impact on the landscape and, as in Alcudia with the cable, the town hall has been placed on a collision course with the ministry, having had to make clear that it hadn’t given any sort of authorisation for the project.
The mayor, Llorenç Gelabert, explains that there was “uproar” as it had appeared as though the town hall given the go-ahead. He has stressed that at a meeting with the minister, government vice-president Juan Pedro Yllanes, and ministry officials, the town hall was told that it “couldn’t do anything, as it had no responsibility for the matter”.
Gelabert is now urging residents to protest like people in Selva have done against a huge solar park project. In response to opposition, the ministry has been emphasising that agricultural land will not be lost, as developers of sites will have to ensure that an equivalent amount of land to that used for solar projects is made available. Even so, this doesn’t get round the potential landscape issues, while Gelabert adds that two other solar projects are planned for Sa Pobla, one next to the Talapi estate, among the municipality’s most historic areas.