The 20-year concession for the bar in Palma's Parc de la Mar expired in 2023, the town hall having received a total payment of one million euros over the 20-year period. Since November 2023, the bar has continued to operate without a concession, and questions are being asked as to whether the town hall has received any further payment.
It would appear that no payment was made until at least December last year. Up to that time, nothing had been done to rectify the situation - the expiry of the concession.
In December, the town hall approved an agreement to allow the bar to continue operating with an extension until November this year. Covering the three years from 2023 to 2026, it required the operator to pay €150,000 (€50,000 per year, the same annual charge as the previous two decades). There is no confirmation from either the town hall or the operator that this has in fact been paid.
The town hall's intention is to put the bar out to a new tender, but it is understood that staff shortages are delaying this. Meanwhile, an internal report has concluded that the town hall had a duty to evict the operating company.
Spokesperson for the PSOE opposition at the town hall, Xisco Ducrós, says "a business is being subsidised by the town hall". The charge agreed in December, he notes, represents one of the cheapest rents in the city's historic centre area - it works out at 4,666 euros per month. This assumes, however, that payments are being made.
"They’re allowing a multi-million euro business to go free. They can operate without paying and nothing happens. We’re tired of certain concession holders, but also of this governing team that is negligent towards the wealthy and abandons the working class."