15/02/2015 00:00
TW
0

Winter flights: a letter from the ministry
And once more, everyone ... with feeling. Winter tourism, winter flights. Bulletin reader Ian Rice took up the matter of the absence of flights to and from Scotland during the winter with the regional tourism ministry. It took two months for him to elicit a response (signed by the minister, Jaime Martínez), but response there eventually was.
Excusing the poor English in which the reply was written, the minister (or someone) said that they were “working to improve connectivity” and that “results into (sic) the last year (had) been positive”.
In November, for example, there had been five direct flights from Scotland, whereas in November 2011 there had been none. Cause for celebration? Well, that’s for all of you trying to get to and from Scotland to decide.
Picking up on Mr. Rice’s initiative, Jason Moore launched a campaign to try and demonstrate, once and for all, that there is demand for flights from airports such as Edinburgh and Glasgow (as well as from Manchester and Birmingham) in the low season.
He called on readers to send emails confirming that Bulletin readers would come to Majorca in the low season if there were the flights; the intention being to forward information from these emails to airlines.
By yesterday, “scores of emails” had been received, while a page of letters on the flights’ theme expressed “dismay” at the decline in their number and outlined the lengths that some visitors need to take in order to get to Majorca in the low season.
One particular letter, by a Scottish apartment owner in Santa Ponsa, highlighted the “nightmare” that travel to the island involves in supporting the campaign to “get this dismal situation sorted out”.

Dog fouling and bar crawls
An often expressed gripe about Majorca made an unwelcome return to the letters’ pages this week. It was that of dog mess on the streets. In the past, for some reason, Puerto Pollensa has usually been a place cited because of dog fouling, but this time it was the turn of Santa Ponsa.
(A note to Calvia Council perhaps: while you are seeking to eliminate anti-social behaviour along Magalluf’s Punta Ballena, don’t forget that there are other forms of unwelcome and irresponsible behaviour.)
There was a reminder of efforts in tackling the problems of Punta Ballena, those that result in particular from bar crawls, with the council promising “tough legislation which will make (them) financially unviable”.
Calvia had discovered, much to everyone’s surprise, that it couldn’t ban bar crawls outright, so alternative measures have been sought.

Weather, Lent and food
Following the cold snap and the snow, greatly improved weather left us all “spoilt for choice” on “fun island” between heading to the mountains to see the snow or to enjoy the sunshine.
 All was “back to normal” by Tuesday, but with cold weather still likely and also with Carnival in full flow, last Sunday Andrew Valente looked at warming and comforting food for Lent (which starts this coming Wednesday) and considered also the historical background to ways in which certain food was deemed permissible or not during Lent.

Tories at La Fortaleza
We were informed on Friday that the British Conservative Party has a “love affair” with Majorca. This followed confirmation of the fact that La Fortaleza near Puerto Pollensa is owned by banker James Lupton who happens to also be party treasurer.
A week’s stay for 24 people at the La Fortaleza estate was auctioned during a fundraising event for the Conservatives, but as noted in yesterday’s Northern Spotlight not all the locals are happy at the fact that regulated access to La Fortaleza, which is supposedly permitted by law, seems to be more restricted than the law suggests that it should be.

The invitation to the Pope
President Bauzá, other leading political figures, the Bishop of Majorca and pilgrims took themselves off to Rome during the week and met Pope Francis. The president made a point of inviting the Pope to Majorca for the canonisation of Ramón Llull (the 700th anniversary of his death is to be celebrated later this year), saying that it would be “a great honour and very important if he could come to Majorca”.
On Friday, Andrew Ede agreed that the Pope should definitely come, observing that the closest Majorca had ever got to a papal visit was when Pope John Paul II had flown over Palma at a height of 10,000 metres in 1982.