Green light for home building

The projects are located at Es Guix in the municipality of Escorca, Ses Fontanelles in Palma and Montport in Andratx. The government is also working to include Ses Feixes on Ibiza and others elsewhere in the Balearics in the urgent measures programme.

The text of the law has not yet been finalised but President José Ramón Bauzá wants to get the document ready as soon as possible so it can go before Parliament and get private enterprise involved in the projects as soon as possible. “We need to take these urgent measures,” explained a government spokesman yesterday “because the builders who were prevented from completing the projects when the Socialists under Francesc Antich were in power, are now demanding a total of 917 million euros worth of compensation.” At Ses Fontanelles alone, the bill would amount to 215 million euros, he said. The project there has already been granted a building licence but was suspended by the previous government for three years. Four years have now gone by and the builder is demanding 8million euros in interest. He added: “Although there are different circumstances in the case of Es Guix and Montport, all the projects have something in common and that is that the government is giving assurances that the access roads, street lighting and drainage are all being finalised.” A decree passed by the Socialists in 2008 also stopped work on developments in Pollensa, Andratx, Soller, Felanitx and Calvia.