09/08/2002 00:00
TW
0

Sir,
I have been most interested in reading the great number of letters, either for or against the present trends in both Pollensa and Puerto Pollensa.
As visitors to both these places, every year for more than thirty years, having owned either an appartment or villa for much of this time, it is good to read the views of many of your writers whom I have had the pleasure in meeting many times, and would like to consider as my friends.

Last year, due to ill health, my wife and I were not able to visit, but we have been very conscious of a down-grading of both the town and the port over recent years. We shall still visit in the future, but now find that two weeks is quite sufficient, compared to our previous four to ten weeks per year.

Virtually every attraction has been sacrificed for the sake of commercial greed. By this I mean bad planning, excessive building of shops and apartments, no parking for the vast increase in traffic, reduction of quality in many shops, excessive pricing in certain restaurants, ruination of the square in the town, over–attraction to vast number of coach parties, introduction of family tri-bikes, inability of the better restaurants to exclude the nappy/push chair brigade in the late evenings etc. etc.

In short, both town and port are in danger of becoming a satellite to Alcudia.
Of course, none of us are under any obligation to visit, but this is a great pity as there is still much to enjoy. Whilst appreciating that the new local generation may have new ideas about how the future should be, they should appreciate that certain standards are still essential - and these are now readily available throughout the world, all within quite easy access.

Regards to all.

Mike Hounsell. Exeter. Devon.