GESA building could go in May

PALMA
THE opposition Partido Popular (PP) said yesterday in Palma that were they to win the next local election to be held in May next year, they would demolish the abandoned GESA building on the Paseo Maritimo, finish the adjacent Palacio de Congresos and put up the largest library and sports centre in the Balearics on the site of the old Lluís Sitjar football stadium.

The PP, through its Palma branch President José Maria Rodriguez, said that should they win the elections on 22nd May next, the party would also launch a massive cultural development campaign in Palma over the period 2011 to 2015, to coincide with the 700th anniversary of the death of the region's greatest philosopher of international renown, Ramon Llull.

The party made it clear that once in power they would “slim down” municipal administration in Palma and that they would eliminate 25 percent of existing positions. In the event of economic expansion, the PP said that it would create public companies and institutes to respond accordingly.

The opposition PP claimed that it “wouldn't spend money that it didn't have” - meaning that the party wouldn't incur further debt for City Hall.
Rodriguez was speaking ahead of the Partido Popular convention which starts today. At the event, the party is planning to unveil its municipal electoral programme for the 2011-2015 term of office. He thanked around 1'000 dedicated party members who had reportedly worked tirelessly for months collecting suggestions from city residents about what they wanted to see happen in Palma.

Speaking specifically about the Lluís Sitjar stadium which has been declared unsafe for public use. Rodriguez acknowledged that there were several owners of the site who needed to be consulted over its future. He said that his party was anxious to reach an agreement with them, without threat of expropriation, or through the declaration of the site as a ruin or having the change of use of the site officially changed. “The owners of the old stadium have been demonised,” suggested Rodriguez.
The PP, he furthered, want to do away with the classification of the old GESA property on the seafront as a listed building.
Once that is done, explained Rodriguez, it can be demolished and a green area opened up on the Paseo Maritimo.