On Thursday, Més, one of the opposition parties at Palma town hall, claimed that the Partido Popular administration "is turning Palma into a mega-terrace, with all the increase in chaos and anti-social behaviour this entails".
The cause of this, according to Més and another opposition party, PSOE, was the collapse of the detailed ordinance plan (POD), itself part of the city's general urban plan, in November last year. The opposition accuse the PP and Vox of having encouraged this. Last month, the administration unilaterally terminated the contract held by the company responsible for drafting the revised urban plan, claiming that it was incompetent and had regularly failed to meet deadlines. The revised plan, including the detailed ordinance plan, was set in motion by Més, PSOE and Podemos when they were in coalition.
Kika Coll of Més, said on Thursday: "The permissiveness of PP and Vox makes it increasingly difficult to walk down the street. There is abusive occupation of public space by terraces in Nuredduna, Santa Catalina and Es Jonquet, among other areas."
Francisco Ducrós of PSOE added: "We are receiving many complaints about noise and excessive occupation of terraces. With the failure of the POD, the proliferation of bars has been facilitated. This is the PP model."
Also on Thursday, residents associations held an urgent meeting to discuss what they consider to be the unmeasured expansion of terraces in Palma. Complaints from different parts of the city have increased because markings that indicate terrace limits are not being respected and also because of more extensive signage and greater noise.
Maribel Alcázar, president of the federation of residents associations, said: "There must be some restaurant owners who have come to the conclusion that this administration is turning a blind eye."
The town hall, for its part, insists that there has been no change to the criteria for terrace authorisations. Public way occupation ordinance has not been modified and zonal plans are the same.