While I fully appreciate that there can be sound environmental reasons for denying or limiting access to parts of the Tramuntana, the tale of the Ternelles Way in Pollensa has always beaten me - almost. This is not just because I fail to understand why barriers (and not just physical ones) have continued to be erected; it is because the sheer complexity of the issues are sufficient to beat anyone. But I persevere in attempting to make out the latest developments in this never-ending story.
To keep it as simple as possible, it needs explaining that the Ternelles finca is owned by the family who own Banca March. They have always sought to limit access, and one of their chief opponents, Pollensa town hall, has never fundamentally disagreed with this. Indeed, no one has seriously ever advocated unfettered access to all and sundry, except perhaps for some radical ramblers. So for years, small groups have been able to trek along the way - or at least part of the way - this group access having itself been a source of conflict. At one time, the town hall organised it, the access not having been guided. Then the family said it would take over, and it did, this time with guided groups.
Guides did in a way make sense. This was on account of the fact that the finca has (or had) exclusion zones. The Castell del Rei and the Cala Castell were off-limits because they were sensitive breeding areas for the black vulture, an endangered species which has now made a good recovery. And it is these exclusion zones which are at the heart of the latest rumpus.
In January this year, the regional environment ministry issued a decree whereby access to the exclusion zones was to be permitted, subject to some revision of what constitutes these zones. The government had therefore, and after an age during which it had appeared to drag its heels, amended the plan for the management of natural resources that governs certain spaces, e.g. the exclusion zones. This amendment was crucial, as the courts had insisted that this was the only means by which the town hall could revise its own plan regarding right of way.
The decree duly issued, and all seemed set fair for hikers to take themselves off to the hitherto prohibited cove and ancient castle (within reason). Except of course, that this would be far too simple, as it is proving to be. On the one hand, we have the town hall administration which, so the main opposition party is lamenting, hasn’t got round to modifying its general plan in order to restore easement on the finca. This, as noted, and because the courts had said so, could only be done once the environment ministry had pulled its finger out. So, a problem right now is that the town hall hasn’t reciprocated in a finger-pulling manner.
When the decree was approved, the environment minister, Miquel Mir, explained that the ministry would itself issue an instruction as to how access as far as Cala Castell could be authorised in a controlled manner, bearing in mind, as if things weren’t already complicated enough, that the national Coasts Law has to be complied with. He added that this would be done once the town hall had recovered the right of way, which it hasn’t.
But the story, naturally enough, wouldn’t be the monumental saga it is without the position of the March family, whose representatives, a company called Menani, has filed an appeal against the decree. So it seems as if everyone will be heading off to the Balearic High Court once more.
One of these days ...
What’s to become of Gatamoix?
Who knows the story of Gatamoix? Who knows where it is? The answer to the latter is that it lies at the foot of the Puig Sant Martí in Alcudia, while its story dates back to 1876. That was the year when the New Majorca Land Company was granted permission to establish an ‘agro-colony’. One of several in Mallorca - those that survived were right by the coast, e.g. Colonia Sant Pere - Gatamoix was the colony for the British engineers who had acquired the rights to dry out Albufera and to cultivate reclaimed land. Henry Waring was the engineer who was the main driving force behind the colony.
The residents were mostly poor families from Pollensa. At one point, around one hundred people lived there. It had a small church and a small school. After Waring had parted company with John Frederick Bateman and then after Bateman died in 1889, the New Majorca Land Company and Gatamoix were controlled by Bateman’s son.
Lee Bateman went native. He married a Mallorcan woman, converted to Catholicism and renamed himself Lluís. He also renamed Gatamoix - after himself; Sant Lluís. The company went bust, was bought by a member of the Palma nobility, Joaquim Gual de Torrella, and Gatamoix was systematically dismantled.
Only one main building remained. Subsequently developed, it became the property of the Escolapios religious order, known in English as the Piarists, who entered into an agreement with a foundation, Maria Ferret, for the use of Gatamoix as an educational and recreational centre; scout groups typically stay there in the summer.
The foundation has been give notice to quit. They have until the end of June. Then what? Well, it would seem as if the Piarists intend to sell the remaining vestige of the almost 150-year-old colony. The foundation would love to buy it. But at a value of 900,000 euros, this is impossible. Could public money be forthcoming to guarantee its future as an educational centre? There hasn’t been any commitment.
Well, Alcudia town hall could afford to pay for it, and if tourist tax revenue can be used to subsidise the purchase of electric scooters and bikes, then it could surely be spent on something more in keeping with the purposes of the tax. It is cultural heritage, after all, and it should be protected and preserved.