Nautical

Waiting list for moorings to be reduced by 80%

Waiting lists for moorings at regional government-controlled ports are to be cut. | Archive

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma14/09/2017 00:00

The government's regional ports authority, Ports IB, is aiming to have cut the waiting list for moorings to under one thousand by the end of the current parliament. There are some 4,500 requests at present for the 22 ports that are controlled by Ports IB.

This reduction, says minister Marc Pons, will be done without increasing the number of moorings. The way in which it will be achieved is through meeting the provisions of the 2005 ports law. These established that 75% of moorings should in effect be permanent ones and that 25% should be for boats in transit. The current situation is almost the exact opposite: 24% of 3,976 moorings that are managed directly by the ports authority are permanent bases.

Pons explains that there has been a demand for this change for more than a decade. The president of the association for mooring clients, Bernardi Alba, stresses that the members want their boats on the sea and not in garages.

The government, Pons adds, is investing 34 million euros in the ports, a vastly higher sum than the previous administration (1.1 million). In addition, the government is revising the charges for the ports that come under the management of marina companies, such as Puerto Portals, where the annual charge will rise to 2.5 million euros.

There are 20,804 moorings in total in the Balearics. Ports IB controls 3,976, the Balearic Ports Authority (Palma, Alcudia, Mahon, Ibiza and La Savina) has 7,309, while there are 9,519 managed by port concessionaires.