Parliament back plans for Inca-Manacor highway

THE Balearic parliament has given its backing to the building of the dual carriageway between Inca and Manacor by rejecting (31 votes to 24) a motion against it put forward yesterday by the Majorcan Socialists and Nationalists. Voting followed intense debate on the appeal made to the ruling government by the Opposition socialist parties.
The Minister for Public Works and Transport, Mabel Cabrer, defended the highway project by saying it would “do the least possible damage to the environment”, as it “ate into less territory” and “made use of modern infrastructure”. She also put forward the argument that it would allow drivers to complete the journey between Palma and Manacor “within 29 minutes”, as well as connecting the districts of Llevant (the east) and Raiguer (Inca). The minister emphasized that this road, along with the Palma to Manacor road-widening scheme, are a key solution to the traffic growth problems that have occurred on the island over the last few years. Cabrer criticised a study carried out by a consultant contracted by the Ministry of Public Works during the term of office of the previous government. She described the contents as “theories that make fun out of Island residents, paid for by public money”. The minister's contribution to the discussion was supported by the Popular Party deputies Antoni Pastor who is Mayor of Manacor, and Maria Salom.
From the opposing bench, the joint spokesman of the Socialist parliamentary group and ex minister of Public Works, Francesc Quetglas, made reference to the highway plan as “a damaging project”, which will bring “imbalance” to Majorca's highway network. “Yet again”, he asserted, “we find that a major infrastructure project is taking precedence over preservation of territory and not the other way round”. Quetglas claimed that the Inca-Manacor highway project is an assault on Majorca's ecology, territory and countryside. He also sees it as “undermining democracy” because society “has been robbed” of its entitlement to debate and give opinion on the construction of the dual carriageway. Quetglas described the project as emerging like “a rabbit out of a hat”, when citizen pressure in Felanitx obliged the district's Mayor, Catalina Soler, to speak out against the planned route of the highway, this technically opposing the policy of her own party on the highway issue. The Majorcan Socialist Party representative, Maria Antónia Vadell, said that the Partido Popular were “not meeting their electoral commitments” because by going ahead and building the roadlink, it would cause turmoil for local people who would be forced to go to Inca before being able to journey to Palma. Vadell advised Minister Cabrer to forget the unfounded idea of making people go along two sides of a triangle when the most direct route is the straight line. Pere Sampol of the Majorcan Socialist Party claimed that the route of the dual carriageway manages to avoid two estates of Popular Party supporters, and demanded to know what financial benefits were generated by the road plans. Margalida Rosselló of the Greens rejected plans because, she said, “they will not solve the mobility problems in Majorca” which in her opinion need improvements to public transport.