A scheme for the Riera park in Palma received most support in the participative budget.

A scheme for the Riera park in Palma received most support in the participative budget. | J. M. Giménez

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma06/10/2016 00:00
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The citizens of Palma have had their say, all 1,184 of them. The town hall had invited the citizens to cast their votes for various projects - a participative budget. The actual number of votes was higher. Citizens were allowed to vote for five of the nineteen proposals, all of them projects to cost more than one million euros. In the end there were 5,043 votes; not all the citizens who voted had cast their full five votes.

The town hall has welcomed the public scrutiny of projects via a voting process described by the councillor for participation, Eva Frade, as a "new participatory and educational way for exercising the right of every citizen to be part of the city's management".

The project that received the greatest support - 641 votes - was that for "green corridors" and the first phase of the "urban forest" of Sa Riera. With 464 votes, start on the rehabilitation of the Gesa building was second. More shade for the city's parks and streets as well as more "life" was the third most popular proposal. It got 461 votes. More car parks came fourth with 456.

And there were all the other projects - ecological public buildings with solar energy, public toilets in strategic parts of the city, more social housing; these were just some. The project with the least votes (72) was for electric or hybrid municipal vehicles.

Frade thanked all those who had taken part, adding that in 2018 the participative budget will be more regionalised in terms of districts of the city, while there will be more time for voting, which won't solely be web-based.