Humphrey Carter26/08/2016 00:00
TW
0

I don’t get this vendetta the city council has against terraces. In fact, it appears to be just a single member of the council, the deputy mayor for public services, Aurora Jhardi, who has been the acting mayor during August while the real mayor, José Hila, has been on holiday.

He shall return to work with the terrace war raging again and a community divided over what exactly the council intends to do. Jhardi does this time around appear to have some support from resident associations who "want more space", but if they are lucky they will get one more metre of space.

Is this all tied in with the so-called saturation debate? Too many terraces and too many people, local residents find it hard to get about the city. I find it a rather weak reason.

All the great work which has been carried out by Palma 365 and the private sector to transform Palma into a leading city-break destination could be partly wasted if these new restrictions come into force, leading to the loss of hundreds of terraces which locals and visitors thoroughly enjoy, especially on hot summer evenings.

They have given Palma a whole new sense of being a cosmopolitan and Mediterranean place to live and visit. They have enabled bars and restaurants to increase revenue and create new jobs, surely Palma Council has got more important issues to worry about and problem to solve, like cleanliness. A little power can be a dangerous thing.