The Balearic environmental group GOB has publicly denounced the conversion of Palma’s beaches into a ‘luxury product’ that will ‘drive away’ residents from their daily use due to the increase in service fees. The organisation, according to a statement, has submitted allegations to the economic study on the operation of seasonal services, warning that the fees have not been approved and that the increase they are considering is ‘exorbitant’.
The prices of beach services, the environmentalists have pointed out, are public prices and therefore cannot be modified at will. Any update must be made by means of a municipal ordinance, following the corresponding legal procedure and publishing them in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB).
For GOB, the proposed rates are evidence of a management model ‘designed mainly for tourists, who can afford increasingly high prices, but which forgets the people who live in Palma and use the beaches all year round. Public policies cannot turn beaches into a luxury product or exclude residents from their daily use. They are a public space and their services must be accessible, clear and in accordance with the law,” it stressed.
According to data provided by the organisation, the price of sun loungers and parasols would increase by four euros to ten, safety deposit boxes by another four euros to five, “premium” sun loungers by 15 to 45 and motor boats by 25 to 55. Environmentalists have pointed out that these increases ‘are not an isolated or one-off event’, but are part of a pattern that has been seen before.
Last September, for example, a formal complaint was made about the prices of sun loungers and parasols at Cala Major, which allegedly did not comply with the authorised conditions. ‘This precedent shows that the problem is not only the price proposed on paper, but how to ensure that the authorised prices are actually complied with and that no hidden or illegal increases are applied,’ they said.