Investments

Soller's theatre.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterSoller18/09/2018 14:25
TW

Soller town hall has had to make an urgent adjustment to the schedule for so-called sustainable investments this year. In essence, these investments - and they apply to all town halls - are what can be made from the previous year's surplus. They are regulated by national legislation for budgetary stability. Work related to them has to be awarded (contracts arrived at) by the end of the year. It typically also has to be completed by the end of the year, but there is leeway if work has to roll over into the following year. But this is on the basis that the spending has been made (or at least ring-fenced) in advance.

The main problem for the town hall is what is meant to be its stellar project, the restoration of the old Defensora Sollerense theatre. With some fanfare at the start of July, it was announced that the theatre would reopen in 2019. The tourism minister, Bel Busquets, joined the mayor, Jaume Servera, and the councillor for urban planning, Jaume Mateu, in visiting the theatre. The tourism ministry, via its fund for accommodation places, will be investing half a million euros. The town hall is to spend the remaining 900,000 euros.

However, it would seem that an error has been made with regard to scheduling. There isn't time to award the whole project before 31 December. The town hall is therefore urgently setting about dividing the work up into sub-projects in order to ensure that it can use the investments - or as much as possible. If it doesn't, the money is in effect lost.

Other spending for which there isn't the same problem includes improving energy efficiency at the town hall building and repairs to street lighting.