There is a new twist to the ongoing saga that is the project for the second electricity cable to be laid from the mainland to Mallorca - to Alcudia specifically.
At Thursday's council meeting, the parties at Alcudia Town Hall unanimously supported a motion for the cable's entry point to be changed from the Bay of Pollensa to the Bay of Alcudia. The Pollensa option has always been the preference of the energy operator Red Electrica and the Spanish Government. The motion urges the company and the government to have a rethink.
When the project was first announced three years ago, there was opposition to the Pollensa route from the town hall as well as from local residents, who formed an association to campaign against the cable. In July last year, a consensus was said to have been arrived at following a meeting at the town hall. This accepted that the cable would enter at Sa Ferradura in Bonaire on the Bay of Pollensa. The land route to the substation on Alcudia's industrial estate was agreed in principle, subject to possible modification.
Another residents group, ANACA, was then formed. This principally comprised residents who would now be affected by the land route. They previously hadn't been affected by proposed routes. This association wants the cable to enter in the Bay of Alcudia, which was what the town hall had certainly wanted initially.
Thursday's motion argued that the alternative route through the Bay of Alcudia is "the most favourable" from a technical, environmental and territorial perspective, and called for an updating of environmental mapping before any final approval of the project. The town hall had last year commissioned an external report which concluded that the Alcudia option was both technically and environmentally viable. This report in fact favoured an entry point at the border of Alcudia and Playa de Muro - this would mean a relatively short land route to the substation - rather than in the port.
Red Electrica disagrees with this assessment and maintains that the Pollensa option will have the least impact on Posidonia seagrass, according to its environmental impact study.