Soller swops orange groves for car parks

The Soller town council is about to approve a special plan for protecting the orange groves the valley is famous for, but at the same time it is planning to fell orange trees on more than 11'000 square metres of land to make way for car parks. Socialist town councillor Jaume Colom claimed that converting small, generally abandoned, orange groves into car parks was the only way to facilitate parking in the town centre. And the only way to stop outsiders from driving into the centre was to create a network of car parks on the outskirts. A municipal brigade is already at work in the Estiradors district, on a 2'000 square metre site which will be a car park for 60 vehicles. Neighbours have protested at the loss of a green zone