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World Forest Day

ARTA
A TOTAL of 425 children took part yesterday in building and planting an enormous tree in front of the Arta town hall. This tree was built, branch by branch and root by root, from recycled material that the children found in the Recycling point in Arta. During the morning the children made use of the recycled material to construct parts of the tree. The aim of this day was to celebrate the World Forest Day (which was celebrated on 21 March but postponed until yesterday because of the Easter celebrations). Hundreds of children, aged from 3 to 12 years, took part in this workshop to build a tree. The structure of the tree was made out of steel and each child placed their branches, made out of wood, and added the leafs that were made out of recycled paper and cardboard. An organiser explained to the children the importance of the worldwide forests as well as the need to recycle. During the afternoon there was dancing in the sports centre by the Maria Antonia Oliver dance company, which put on a show that combined the environment with dance.

Consumer rights

LLUBI
T HE Minister for Health and Consumer Affairs, Aina Castillo, and the Mayor of Llubí, Tomás Campaner, yesterday signed an agreement to start up a “Consumer rights for you” programme. Both administrations will work together to improve the flexibility and efficiency of the services that consumers use currently at the General Department for Consumer Affairs. With this aim in mind the town council will receive and collect any consumer complaints and suggestions which will then by passed on to the General Department for Consumer Affairs in Palma, where they will be dealt with as usual. This will mean that residents and consumers will find it easier to make consumer complaints and suggestions, as it will only mean a trip to their local town hall. A further aim of this programme is to give residents more consumer information, whereby the town council and General Department for Consumer Affairs will organise meetings and conferences to discuss particular consumer matters. Another aim of the Ministry for Health and Consumer Affairs is to extend this programme to all the regions in the Balearic Islands.

Rubbish in Port

ANDRATX
THE Ministry for Public Works has started a clean-up project of the sea-bed in the Port of Andtratx and in scarcely seven days has picked up an astonishing 4 tonnes of rubbish. From the middle of last week the professionals from the General Department for Ports have been hard at work. A diver and a small boat with three civil servants search the sea-bed for any rubbish and then are picking it up and removing it from the sea-bed. So far they have collected numerous mopeds, around twenty supermarket trolleys, dozens of empty bottles, tyres, rope, pieces of wood, building materials and even a musical tape of Trio los Paraguayos. This initiative was started up after the Minister Mabel Cabrer saw the state of the sea during a visit to the port.

Free mobile info

INCA
T HE free information service direct to your mobile, “Infoinca”, started yesterday in Inca. Residents can find out regional information through their mobile. So far only 203 users have signed up to this service.

Management fees

CABRERA
T HE Balearic Minister for the Environment, Jaume Font, considers that the financial proposal for transferring the management of the National Park on Cabrera from the Central Government to the Balearic Government is insufficient. Jaume Font asked that the financial proposal is increased to be more in line with 4 million euros annually. These statements were made at a press conference on April 1 in response to a document that was published on 21 March. The Minister for Environment said that the transfer of management of the island could take place on 1 July this year, instead of 1 January 2006 which was the original forecast. He went on to add that he would like both Governments to arrive at a complete agreement.