TW
0

Palma de Majorca.—The Playa de Palma Reform Board, charged with the overhaul of the outdated buildings and facilities in the holiday resort, also confirmed yesterday that as well as having spent just a sixth of what funding it has received from Central and regional government on minor reform works, only around one million euros has gone on altering the physical structure and image of the area.

Apart from having spent these limited sums on the reform of the Playa de Palma, around 6.7 million euros has been spent on so-called “non-material” investment, that is to say feasibility studies, a drawing board “master plan”, analyses and project steering plans. On top of these pre-project costs, there has been the fees payable to the Dutch architects, West 8.

It is already documented that of the money given by Central Government for the Playa de Palma reform project (28.5 million euros), 16 million went into a separate sector of the Balearic government's accounting system and ended up being used by the Socialist coalition in power at the time for other purposes.

Therefore this sum of 16 million euros is still owed to the Playa de Palma Reform Board who in theory could ask for it to be repaid at any moment. The remaining 8 million euros has to be found by the Balearic government, the Council of Majorca and Llucmajor and Palma local authorities.

Meanwhile experts in urban reform and property construction companies are agreeing that the Playa de Palma project will only be a real success if the Balearic government provides tax incentives to the private sector to encourage investment in the scheme. “The new Balearic government needs to set its seal on the project,” an analyst said.