Playa de Palma reform u-turn comes under fire from all political and business sectors

THE reformation of the aging Playa de Palma is not going to be completely put on hold but it is going to be watered down and yesterday, even members of the governing Socialist Party expressed their doubts that the ambitious project will ever take place.

As the Bulletin reported yesterday, the project has received over 1'335 objections from individuals and businesses and what was going to be the first phase of the project, involving all the heavy duty work such as the hugely controversial expropriations of houses, offices and hotels, is going to be delayed.

It appears that phase one will now be a “cosmetic” one involving the installation of underground waste collection services, similar to those already in use in the centre of Palma, the relandscaping of green areas, general improvements to existing infrastructure and the repainting of buildings.

Then, once all this has been completed and the local community can see the benefits of the reformation project, Margarita Najera, the former Socialist Mayor of Calvia and now Director of the Playa de Palma Consortium, hopes that the heavy work, which will include demolishing front line hotels, can be eventually carried out. However, while no deadline for completion of the project has been set, it is expected to take 15 to 20 years to complete and many political parties yesterday claimed that, apart from the widespread objections from the public to the plan, the money is not there. The opposition Partido Popular slammed the partial withdrawal of the project as “a complete fiasco.” The PP's Parliamentary spokesperson, Antoni Pastor, said that the project has been on the table for over three years, but absolutely nothing has been done.

Pastor said it has been a “disgrace” the way the Balearic government has managed the Playa de Palma project and pointed the finger at Najera, the Minister for Tourism Joana Barcelo and the Balearic President, Francesc Antich, for the failure of a project which is so important for the future of the Playa de Palma and the tourist industry.