Counting the high cost of security in the Balearics

by Staff Reporter
THE town councils of the Balearic Islands allocate an additional cost of 17'844'000 euros a year on security, according to a study commissioned by the Balearic ministry of the interior and by the Federation of Local Government Bodies of the Balearics (FELIB) on the economic pressure exerted on Town Councils to control crime. In this report, presented yesterday by the Minister of the Interior, Josep María Costa, and by the President of FELIB, Margarita Nájera, the Mayor of Calvia, it was also revealed that the total budget that the town hall authorities set aside for this purpose is in the region of 71'536'000 euros. Costa highlighted the “important super human effort made by those responsible in the town halls of the Balearics in order to make up for the negligence of other administrative bodies” and reproached the central minister of the interior, Angel Acebes, for “not having wanted to sign” an agreement with the Balearic Islands recognising their special status as a tourist region, but that “he had wanted to sign accords with other communities in Spain” with whom, it was pointed out, he enjoyed better relations. Nájera said that representatives of central government administration “must acknowledge the responsibilities set down by law and in the Spanish Constitution concerning the redistribution of power to local authorities”. Both Costa and Nájera consider that the central government has not paid the necessary attention to the growth of crime in the Islands over the last four years, which have given the Balearics the second highest crime rate in Spain, after Ceuta. Costa added that there are two “black points” the Bay of Palma and the Bay of San Antonio Abad on Ibiza “that need specific measures taken to reinforce security”, by which “crime levels could be lowered”. The report says that Balearic council set aside an average of 9.8 per cent of their budgets for security, whilst in Asturias the figure was only 5.8 per cent. The annual cost for security per inhabitant in the Islands differs when one is dealing with municipalities where tourism is well established, either rural or urban, although in Majorca it was an average of 84.2 euros per person per year, much higher than Asturias, where it was only to 38.6 euros.