Responding to business claims that an underground car park on Palma's Paseo Marítimo had been promised, the president of the Balearic Ports Authority (APB), Javier Sanz, insists "we never said we were going to build an underground car park".
In recent days, criticisms of the redeveloped Paseo from different business sources have turned the focus on the ports authority, which has responsibility for the road and its surroundings. On Monday, the president of the Paseo Business Association, Manuel Jiménez, stated that the authority had broken a promise to build an underground car park to compensate for the loss of parking spaces that have resulted from the redevelopment.
Sanz has countered by saying emphatically that after he took office and with the work already underway, "we always spoke with all the associations and groups, seeking consensus". He has expressed surprise at Jiménez's statements, including that which referred to the loss of 1,200 parking spaces along the three and a half kilometres of the Paseo.
"We spoke with all the associations. I remember that two years ago, when we took office, we already had this project, and that once it was finished, asking for an underground car park made absolutely no sense. We inherited a project and implemented it, knowing it could cause some disruption."
Sanz stressed that he wished to "refute Sr. Jiménez's claim, because we never said that". He added that there are other parking projects in the pipeline under the APB's jurisdiction, such as the one that will be part of the comprehensive renovation of the Real Club Náutico once the dispute regarding the extension of the club's concession is resolved.
The ABONE nightlife association has meanwhile issued a statement requesting direct aid for the sector due to the impact of the redevelopment, noting that only ad hoc measures are currently in place. The association has also requested urgent solutions to the lack of parking.