Former Pollensa mayor, Tomeu Cifre. | Julián Aguirre

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The Council of Majorca has sent a letter to Bartomeu Cifre Ochogavía, the ex-mayor of Pollensa, requiring him to reopen the old road to Lluc, which passes through his family's finca.

The Pro Camins Públics i Oberts has been demanding the reopening for some years. The Ca na Borrassa finca is just one point of conflict for walkers along the dry-stone route between Pi de Son Grua and the refuge at Pollensa's Roman bridge.

If Cifre doesn't comply with the request before Saturday, it could well be that the Council sends a team to open the way, which it has done once before. This was in 2012 when there were a number of obstacles from Lluc to Ca na Borrassa, including the public finca of Menut. The old Lluc road was closed for months, and hikers reported that the obstacles included beehives and dead sheep.

Cifre has demanded that the Council removes the stretch, arguing that hikers have to cross the road four times, including going in the opposite direction of cars. For more than ten years he has proposed an alternative which would be safer and more beneficial to all.

At present, the Council has established a trail that runs parallel to the road, but grilles at Ca na Borrassa block the way. Cifre says that without these, animals would leave the finca and cause road accidents. He adds that he has a report from the Guardia Civil confirming that he would be liable for any damage caused.

Ultimately, the Council will probably be left with no other option than to go to court. Cifre has no intention himself of pursuing litigation as he considers the issue to be a civil matter. He adds that there are other sections on the dry-stone route which are closed and for which the Council is taking no action.

Pollensa politics, hardly unusually, also seem to have a role to play. A cousin of the ex-mayor is the current councillor for the environment, Bartomeu Cifre Bennàsar of Més. The present mayor, Miquel Àngel March, is an uncle, and he is also the former spokesperson for the environmentalists GOB. Political ideologies are different, as the ex-mayor was a Partido Popular member before forming his own grouping, Tots per Pollença.

Cifre is therefore suggesting that the Pro Camins group is involved in a "political manoeuvre" with the mayor and the environment councillor and that they, as well as the Council, could be engaged in an act of "prevaricación", which essentially means an abuse of power.