Soller's councillor for mobility, Josep Porcel, is under fierce attack on social media and from the opposition at the town hall. He is being blamed for changes to the traffic system in the town itself which are said to have added to the jams on the Desvio road - the MA-11 main access road.
Road redesign, he says, "has provided another exit route for cars that previously had to use C. Cetre, so the total volume of vehicles on road street has likely decreased rather than increased". "In both 2024 and 2025, this road saw peak traffic of 75,000 vehicles on a single summer day, and that was under the previous traffic management plan." The Plaça Espanya area, he adds, is "much quieter, and anyone who says otherwise is lying".
"The objective of the redesign associated with the creation of a Low Emission Zone was to restrict access to the town centre so that practically only residents can drive, and especially park, there. More than 1,000 parking spaces have been created exclusively for residents, whereas there used to be only six such spaces in the centre."
The Low Emission Zone, currently in its trial period, will be fully activated on Monday, meaning that all unauthorised vehicles will be fined €200.
Porcel believes the opposition "should remember that my responsibility is for mobility in areas under municipal jurisdiction, not for the access roads where traffic arriving from Palma via the tunnel and Valldemossa clogs the Desvio road on a daily basis; this has nothing to do with the changes or the Low Emission Zone".
Laura Celià of the opposition Més argues that the current situation "has demonstrated the total failure of Porcel's grand plan and has caused utter chaos". "The measures taken by the governing team have been useless, as they have not reduced the gridlock, the queues, the danger or the drivers' frustrations."