PORRERES
THE Basque folk group, Santurtiziko Trikitixak offered an insight into their traditional instruments and music in Porreres last Saturday. Using the txalaparta and the alboka, instruments native to the Basque Country in northern Spain, the group introduced Majorcans to a musical culture not so very different from their own.

Pigeon championships

SANTA EUGENIA
SOME thirty pigeon breeders from Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza are participating in the Balearic Pigeon Championships which are being held in the Natura Parc installations in Santa Eugenia which will draw to a close tomorrow with an auction. In total, twelve species of pigeon with Spanish origin are taking part, their names reflecting the area of the country from which they come.

Xesc Ayarte, president of the Pigeon and Dove Breeding Association said that it is mainly people coming from the mainland of Spain who have set up home on Majorca who are the most ardent supporters of this culture.

Judging and prize giving took place on Saturday after the birds had enjoyed a couple of days acclimatising to their cages.
Sports stadium opens

CONSELL
THE new covered sports stadium in Consell is now up and running. Although an official opening ceremony has not yet taken place, schools and sports clubs are using the facilities.

The construction of the covered stadium began during the term of office of the previous municipal government under the Partido Popular. The cost needed to complete the project stood at around one million euros, 70 percent of which was financed by the Works and Services department of the Council of Majorca.

Although the works were practically complete a year ago, the doors couldn't open for two chief reasons. Firstly, because the structure is located on terrain classified as rural, it lacked water and electricity supplies and drainage facilities. The new local government completed the project through a further investment from the Council of Majorca.

The second reason for delay was that the pavillion cover was completely destroyed during a hail storm which struck the town in September 2003 when the works were nearly complete.

Wood recycling

MANACOR
ONE of the questions many are asking about the treatment of scrap wooden material is ”what use can best be made of it?” In fact, up until only a few months ago, the hundreds of tonnes of leftover chipboard, strips of plywood, sawdust and other odds and ends made out of wood, were incinerated out in the country with no official control.

Now a wood recycling plant set up on the Palma to Cala Rajada road on the outskirts of Manacor, sets store by left-overs and indeed, benefits from them.

Managing director of Reciclafusta (Wood Recycling), Maria José Camarena, explained: “Once wood waste is cut up finally, it can be used to produce plywood boards which are exported, above all to the mainland; compost; and bedding for livestock. There are further uses for recycled wood which as yet have not been commercialised but which the company intends to reintroduce into the industrial chain.

Traders back Council

ARTA
TRADERS in Arta are supporting the local Council in complaints to regional government about the lack of funds for introducing projects to develop all-year-round-tourism. The brainchild of the Balearic Tourist ministry, the strategy makes funding available to help local authorities upgrade and market their historic and cultural attrations. Arta's Council say that the district has only received 168'000 euros out of the 900'000 euros applied for.