Manacor town hall, Mallorca profits from direct control of beach services

Manacor initially borrowed sunloungers from Alcudia. | Archive

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterManacor08/03/2022 11:43

Manacor town hall reports having made a profit of 82,000 euros last year from beach services - sunloungers and parasols. This followed the decision to take direct municipal control of the services rather than contract them out. The revenue in 2021 exceeded forecasts, which had been conservative because of uncertainties generated by the pandemic.

The opposition Partido Popular is less positive about this than the ruling administration led by Miquel Oliver of Més. Spokesperson Maria Antònia Sansó maintains that the town hall lost one million euros as a result of taking direct control. She points to a difference of half a million euros between the 2020 and 2021 budgets for the municipal services company, SAM, and to the fact that some 500,000 euros were not charged to concessionaires because of the municipal control.

Councillor Cristina Capó, president of SAM, says that the budget difference of half a million is due to an "accounting regularisation" and insists that "if the town hall had not municipalised the service, there wouldn't have been one as no company was interested". Another councillor, Sebastià Nadal, who is the vice president of SAM, Sebastià Nadal, says that a financial study indicates that "income will be higher each year."

When Manacor took the decision to municipalise the beach services, the town hall was initially lent sunloungers by Alcudia, which had plenty spare because of reduced beach capacity caused by the pandemic. Alcudia has direct control of most beach services, which is the exception rather than the rule in Mallorca. Manacor has now followed suit.