Palma.The City Council claimed yesterday that the move to end the private security contract has been purely for economic reasons.
The terms and conditions had committed the Council to paying 5'000 euros a year to the firm for keeping a watch on the GESA building at the eastern end of the Paseo Maritimo from 10pm to 8am the following morning.
Both City Council Planning Director Jesús Valls and the Local Police themselves have denied that robberies had taken place in the building as has been suspected by the opposition Socialists (PSOE).
Reform
Separately, Partido Popular Mayor Mateo Isern yesterday rejected proposals that the building needs to undergo reform to stop it falling into disrepair. Valls explained that the GESA building is currently subject to a number of legal planning reviews and that it would be unwise for public money to be spent on the premises at the moment.
In any event, added Valls, the building would need about 15 million euros spent on it and the Council simply doesn't have the money. The Councillor also said that Mayor Isern does not believe now is the right time to appeal against a court ruling that the GESA building should remain an officially protected premises by virtue of it being of architectural importance.
Valls said that the GESA building is just one of a number of property issues on the agenda between the Council and the Balearic government. He said that the Council is tabling an exchange of 30 million euros it owes to the Balearic Housing Institute (Ibavi) in return for money that the government owes the Council by law for Palma's status as a capital city.
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