Islands Councils given planning permission

THE Councils of Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza and Formentera will be given the authority to grant or deny planning permission for houses in the country.
This is a power which up until now has been in the hands of the councils and only exercised by the island Councils in the absence of a local council.
This was made public yesterday the the Balearic Minister of Public Works, Housing and Transport, Mabel Cabrer, during the presentation of the draft of the Preliminary Plan for Territorial Law which, she said, will bring together and clarify all the existing territorial laws. According to this legislation, to build a house in the country the applicants must have a “territorial licence”, which the island Councils have to grant and, later, an urban licence from the local council. The minimum amount of ground required to build houses in the country will not vary. However, there is a new part in the draft law which says that cellars will also be taken into account in measuring the maximum height permitted, which stays at seven metres. Cabrer said that the objective of this measure is to make town planning in the islands easier, saying that the proximity between the local councils and the citizen made it difficult to restrict building.