Pollensa town hall occasionally came up with ideas, but none were satisfactory, and a further complication arose after UNESCO declared the Tramuntana Mountains a World Heritage Site. Can Morató is within this site. Under the UNESCO terms, authorities can’t go around demolishing heritage elements. These authorities are indeed supposed to do all in their powers to maintain this heritage adequately.
As it was proving to be so difficult to find a good solution, an impression was formed that the authorities would probably have been happy to see Can Morató collapse of its own accord. But it didn’t, and so the headache continued. Finally, the Colonya Bank came to the rescue. The savings bank that was founded in Pollensa bought the property in January 2020. Its foundation wished to use Can Morató as the bank’s headquarters and as a social and cultural centre for Pollensa.
Getting on for four years later, and with nothing more having happened, the Balearic government has put something of a spanner in the works. The directorate for water resources has turned down the Colonya restoration project because the old factory is in a flood zone which is considered to be “very high risk” for people and for property.
Can Morató is in the vicinity of the Sant Jordi torrent. As such, the directorate doesn’t allow interventions which would involve a potentially significant reduction in drainage capacity. Nor does it permit rehabilitation work that would mean increased occupation of buildings. In this case, there would be re-occupation and by significant numbers of people.
The Colonya plan only envisages retaining the walls. Maintaining the facade would, for instance, satisfy UNESCO, even if most of the building is knocked down, and the Council of Mallorca’s heritage department. Aware of the flood risk, the project contemplates an additional perimeter wall. However, this wall, argues the directorate, would modify the flow of water, reduce the torrent’s drainage capacity and merely shift the flood risk downstream and to the immediate surroundings.
The bank has challenged the directorate’s conclusions, while the Council of Mallorca has reinforced its 2002 declaration. Its urban planning committee has unanimously decided that the Colonya project is in the general interest, a vital step in granting the building licence.
So, what happens now? A period of one month was given for an appeal against the directorate’s decision. That has been made, and therefore we will have to wait to see what the outcome is. Never let it be said that restoring old buildings is straightforward.
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