Objections to airport expansion

THE committee co-ordinating the various groups opposed to the expansion of Palma's Son Sant Joan airport has delivered 1'000 individual objections to modifications to the PGOU (general plan) of Palma, needed in order to proceed with the project. The objections were delivered to the city hall, which is debating changes that would allow the ministry of public works develop plans to expand the airport, to cater for up to 38 million passengers a year, a figure which it is expected to reach by 2014. Today is the last day for lodging objections, most of which are based on the negative consequences of the plans: increase on urban pressure, saturation in the tourist sector, and an increase in pressure on resources. Miquel Angel March, spokesman for the environmental group GOB, says that expansion plans go against the DOT, the Balearic government's planning directives, which ban new airport infrastructures. Objections also say that the farmland affected has recently been equipped with an irrigation system and declared a protected area, which makes the ministry's plans contradictory. Several political parties have also expressed their opposition to the expansion.