Environmental group GOB against Campos project

BALEARIC environmental group GOB, has requested that the Balearic government withdraw a project which is in the pipeline for the construction of a new urban development in Campos. Plans include a polo pitch to be built over an area of “important environmental value”, claim the ecologists.
Yesterday, representatives from the conservationist group visited the lands affected by the project, which incorporate an area of some 99 hectares.
Apart from the polo pitch, a housing development, commercial complex and a hotel are on the drawing board.
Justification for the scheme, say regional government, lies in the need to compensate Campos for not having the social and commercial advantages of a tourist zone. GOB wishes to see the project rejected in its entirety.
In their judgement, all aspects of the construction programme would impact unfavourably on the environment, not just in terms of loss of land but also from the point of view of social and touristic difficulties. After insisting that to let this project go ahead would be “utterly disastrous for the environment”, the ecologists were confident that the economic alternatives for Campos “do not lie in building more hotels or new housing and commercial developments”. According to GOB, the lands affected have great natural value, and would be destroyed completely if the urbanisation plans were to go ahead. It would also mean that the area of special natural interest at Campos, el Salobrar, would have to be downgraded along with the beaches and dunes of Es Trenc. In order to justify such opposition, the conservation group additionally pointed to the vast increase in drinking water that would be required for the new housing development; the necessity to create new infrastructure and services; the facilities that would have to be made available for increased tourism; further demand on Majorca's already-stretched power supply and the production of waste. All these factors considered, the result was the formal request made by GOB to the Balearic government to withdraw plans for this urban development project. The Campos project has been a bone of contention for local environmentalists ever since it was first devised and GOB's co-ordinator Miguel Angel March said yesterday he is not going to let the matter drop.