Alcudia - Getting to grips with Bellevue's parking and fences

This is about to all change. Last Thursday, the mayor, Fina Linares, and the police went and took a look around. Today (Friday, February 23), town hall technicians were due to have been out surveying with the municipal tape measure. Prior to the mayor's visit, there had been hints as to developments, and I understand that these have now been confirmed.

Firstly, the parking on the road, which is currently on both sides without yellow lines. I am told that there is an issue with the Bellavista Urbanisation (as the whole complex was originally known) in that there was never a completion of works back in the 1970s. There should have been a proper pavement. It was never created. It now will be; eventually. In the short term, and in time for the coming tourism season, a pavement is to be painted onto the road. This will run alongside all three of the Siesta Apartments, thus (in theory at any rate) eliminating all the parking on that side of the road.

The plan in the long term is for a permanent pavement, and this will involve encroaching into the grounds of all three of the Siesta Apartments. This pavement will have to be of sufficient width and specifications for the current day, and so the hedges (plus the low wall for Siesta 2) will have to go. Because there was no completion of works, these hedges were put in. There could of course be new ones, but not where they are at present.

As to the other side of the road, this has yet to be determined, but as the photo shows, the road is too narrow to allow traffic in both directions to move with freedom. At this time of year, it's not so much of an issue, but in summer it is a major headache because of all the parking. It is exacerbated by the regularity with which delivery trucks, dustcarts and coaches use the road.

It is clear that eliminating road parking (at least one side of the road) will mean having to park elsewhere. In this respect, as I understand the situation, the parking areas in front of and to the back of the Ceres blocks should never have had fences installed. In fact, none of the fences should have been put up. So that parking will supposedly be guaranteed, to which is added the space between Siesta 3 and the Fedra blocks. There will be some tidying up of this space, and this - I'm led to believe - will entail the removal of a different type of fence that Bellevue put up and behind which have been stored all manner of building materials. The town hall will insist that all this goes as well.

There is a plan to install solar-powered LED street lighting, though it appears that this will have to wait until the tendering procedure is initiated. It's not clear when this might be, but the town hall is embarking on a process of creating lighting of this type. On certain minor roads, e.g. the Roman Theatre old way in the town, the new lighting is already operative.

Regarding the surface of the road, this remains to be seen. But it is obvious that resurfacing is required and that all the potholes, some of which get patched over and then rapidly reappear, need to be eliminated.

There has long been a lack of clarity as to who is responsible for what, this having been lost in the mists of time (fifty odd years ago). But it does seem that there is the will to finally set about improvements and to also take account of coexistence on what is a shared urbanisation - residential and tourist. Bellevue is under new management, a division of Iberostar, a serious hotel company with a well-earned reputation for responsibility and sustainability to be preserved.