Master plan for disposing builders´ rubble approved

The Council of Majorca has approved the master plan for the management of builders' rubble, voluminous rubbish and tyres, despite the abstention of the Popular Party. The plan calls for six collection plants, in Manacor, Inca, Llucmajor, Porreres, Artà and Santa Margalida, and two treatment plants at Son Reus in Palma and Calvia. Miquel Angel Borrás, head of the environment department, defended the plan as an “open project” and did not rule out future changes to improve the sites of the plants. Antoni Alorda, spokesman of the PSM (Majorcan Socialist Party) congratulated the team which drew up the Plan for their “courage in facing up to a difficult and complex subject, which up to now had been hidden, like a sore, using illegal places to dump the rubble.” But Francesc Fiol, spokesman for the PP, accused the United Left.Greens (EU-EV) of “political schizophrenia” and of voting in an “incoherent manner” because they presented amendments to the plan which were rejected, but then voted in favour of it. The amendments were regarding the site of the transfer stations in the south of the island. The Council approved unanimously the special plan for protecting the historical properties of the Archduke Luis Salvador in Valldemossa and Deia. Rafael de Lacy, head of the Council's planning department, said that it was the first plan in the whole of Spain which regulated the use of this type of historical estate. He pointed out that while in 1999, all the owners of these properties, which include S'Estaca belonging to Michael Dougles, were opposed to the plan, now 99 per cent are infavour. The only objections to the plan received when it was posted for public inspection came from ARCA, the association which defends the heritage, and land owners Manuel March Cencillo and Enric Luque Albertí. De Lacy said that the aim of the plan was to enable “our children to see these emblematic estates as they are preserved today.” The majority rejected a motion from the PP, to ask the central ministry of the environment to urgently regenerate the beaches of Majorca and Ibiza damaged during the November storms. The question of the regeneration of the beaches gave rise to an angry debate between Jaume Font of the PP and the representatives of the PSM, EU-EV and PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Union), who all agreed on the need to restore the beaches to their original state before the storms, and to do so “with common sense, intelligence and a guarantee of permanence.” The PP accused the EU-EV of opposing the artificial regeneration of beaches for “obscure interests” but Alorda slammed the system of extracting sand from the sea bed, as proposed by the ministry of the environment, because of its effect on the eco system. The Council did approve a motion by the PP regarding the alleged pillaging and illegal export of coins and other items found at Santueri castle by a Swiss subject. It was agreed to open an investigation into the matter.