Deià-Sóller road open

The last remaining stretch of road closed by this month's storms, was opened again yesterday to normal traffic. The Ministry for Public Works and Transport announced that the Soller to Deya road, which was seriously damaged in the storms, is now open again. While work has been carried out to repair damage caused by flooding and land slides, the road has been open to local traffic since November 15. However, teams of council workers and engineers will remain in the area as road signs need to be replaced and there is still a large amount of debris to be cleared from the road side. The stretch of coastal road between the Port of Pollensa and Alcudia is soon to be repaired and re-surfaced. Yesterday in Madrid, the Partido Popular and the PSOE Socialist Party repeated their calls for central government to increase the level of help for the Balearics, Cataluña and Valencia, all of which were seriously hit by the storms. While Madrid has pledged substantial financial aid for the Balearics, it appears that central government is dragging its feet over helping to repair the damage. The repair bill in the Balearics has been estimated at over £10 million, but private home owners are still completing their insurance forms with the final bill expected to be nearer the £20 million mark as further heavy rain is expected over the next few days - but without hurricane winds and not on the scale of November 11.