NEWS FROM YOUR AREA

Poems THE Department of Culture in the Council of Majorca have organised a day to pay homage to the poet Miquel Bauçà, who was born in Felanitx in 1940, and died in Barcelona this January. During the event, which will be held next Friday at 9.30pm in the Cultural Centre, there will be a conference titled “Countrysides and figures in Miquel Bauçà*s poetry” by Gabriel Julia i Adrover. There will also be poetry readings and musical interpretations. AROUND 150 students will take to the stage tomorrow for the School Theatre Marathon. The Marathon will take place from 13 to 20 May in the Auditorium in Alcudia. The students will all perform the works that have been prepared especially for the event. AGREEMENT on the new national health centre has finally been reached after a series of intense meetings started by the Mayor, Antoni del Olmo. Residents, Santa Margalida town council and the Council of Majorca were all present in these meetings. This means that the new health centre will be built in Can Picafort, and it is hoped that all works will be finished for August 2006. The project was put on hold due to a number of complaints by local residents. Now all these complaints have been resolved and the project can move forward. ALCUDIA, ANDRATX, IBIZA & MINORCA THE Ministry for the Environment has been given the green light from Madrid to build four new desalination plants in Alcudia, Andratx, Santa Eulalia (Ibiza) and Ciudadela (Minorca). The Ministry in Madrid will be supplying 37 million euros to finance these projects. The Balearic Ministry praised the signing of this agreement, as they think it is an “essential” step to improve “these important and at the same time necessary water infrastructures” in the Balearics. Once the new plants have been built, there will then be work to create water connections to other areas. However, the United Left-Greens party (EU-EV) are demanding that the project to create a desalination plant in Andratx is scrapped. These demands were made to the Balearic Government yesterday, along with a set of allegations that the project will have environmental impacts. The construction of a desalination plant in this area will mean “an increase in carbon dioxide emissions” into the atmosphere, said a spokesperson from EU-EV. Furthermore, this party states that no study has yet been carried out to determine if the area actually needs a desalination plant. The “imminent” arrival of water from the Soller valley “has solved this water shortage problem” that occur during the summer, the party said. Other effects of building this plant will lead to “higher water costs, which are already high in Andratx”. It will also mean higher water costs “in Palma and Calvia”, the EU-EV party added. FROM now on it is forbidden to erect mobile phone masts in the town of Selva. All parties unanimously voted for this ruling this week, which will mean that any future mobile phone masts will have to be erected more than 200 metres away from the town. In addition, the owners of the masts, will have to present a series of civil insurance guarantees to be able to install the mast. This ruling does not apply to masts that have already been installed in the area.