Infrastructure

Manacor wanting tourist tax money to fix Storm Gloria damage

Storm Gloria caused significant damage in Calas de Mallorca.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterManacor29/02/2020 13:35

On Friday, Manacor's mayor, Miquel Oliver, visited Calas de Mallorca, which was one of the areas in Manacor that was worst affected by Storm Gloria. Oliver said that a motion, agreed by all political parties at the town hall, will call on the Balearic government to authorise tourist tax revenue for repairing damage. He noted that four million euros of tourist tax is raised in Manacor on an annual basis.

In addition, the motion will be "very firm" in asking the Spanish government to deal with the damage. This should not only be for public areas but private ones as well. It is essential that infrastructure such as promenades is restored and that the Costas Authority assumes the cost and undertakes work immediately. In the event that the authority doesn't act, the town hall will do all it can.

Oliver was one of the mayors from municipalities in the east of Majorca who earlier this week met the national government delegate, Aina Calvo, and Almudena Domínguez, the head of the Costas in the Balearics. He and other mayors were furious with the authority. "The Costas want to pass the buck to the town halls, which are the ones with the least possibility of doing anything." Mayors were especially indignant at a suggestion that town halls could request thirty-year concessions for promenades and undertake repairs themselves.

The mayor observed that the town hall doesn't have the financial wherewithal for work to improve the promenade in Calas de Mallorca. It is currently closed off because of the risk it poses.