The end of road for Palma´s black cabs

The end has come for Palma's black and cream taxis. From now on, they all have to be white, but the taxi associations claim that the fleet of cabs have lost their identity. While over the past two years, cabbies were supposed to be changing the colour of their taxis to white, a certain section have refused and yesterday the Palma City Council voted in favour of a motion to outlaw any more black and cream cabs. All of the city's taxi drivers now have a period of two years to have their cabs repainted and new taxi licences will only be granted for white cabs. According to the council, 408 taxis have converted to the new colour scheme and there are only 26 black and cream cabs on the roads. However, only white taxis will be given the municipal radio-taxi licence, so conforming with the council's new regulations will be in the taxi drivers' best interests. PSM Majorcan socialist party and UN, Majorca unionist party councillors voted against the motion. The UM's Ferran Trujillo, said that Palma's public transport service will lose its identity by ditching the black and cream taxis. Palma City Council hit back yesterday at accusations that mayor Joan Fageda spent too much public funding on having a new set of official photographs taken, claiming that the council is much more careful with public funding than the Balearic government, the Insular Council of Majorca and parliament. After yesterday's council meeting, council sources said that Palma city council is the only administration which does not employ a photographer to accompany the Mayor to all official acts, pointing out that the Balearic President and the leader of the Insular Council do. The government employs two photographers who are paid between 24.000 and 36.000 euros per year, while the Insular Council put the 6.000-euro contract out for tender. The city council also stated that the Mayor has a set of pictures done every four years or when necessary. “It's a joke when you compare what we spend with the other institutions,” a city council source said.