City council to go ahead with new car rental controls

Palma City Council confirmed yesterday that it intends to go ahead with its plan to basically ban un-hired rental cars from the city centre. Yesterday the city authority said that, within the space of the next 12 months, it will have brought in new norms and regulations controlling the parking of hire cars in the city centre. The new policy will involve all hire car companies based in Palma, even those who have their fleets parked up on “green belt” land, of which there are ten. According to the council, this is illegal, and so is the practice by companies based in the city centre who have to relocate their cars to zones outside the capital. The city council intends to make certain designated zones available, but car hire companies will also be able to move their fleets to urban areas if that is where they have their own garages or depots. Armed with the proposal, the city development councillor Rafel Vidal met the President of the car Hire Association, Manuel Jiminez, to discuss the plan. The city council delegation explained that the authority's intention is to modify the Municipal Traffic law, which dates back to 1974, in order to introduce a new law which will prohibit the parking of rental cars which are not contracted out in the city centre.