Plan submitted to replace Can Picafort Mar y Paz pool

There has been a battle to keep the pool by the company that operates it. On the other side have been environmentalists and also the Costas Authority, which has ultimate responsibility as the pool is in maritime domain. The concession for the pool expired in 1996. The pool will now go, and Santa Margalida town hall has submitted its plan for what will replace it.

The Costas have been presented with a document that proposes a square surrounded by steps like an amphitheatre. These steps will act as a bridge between the promenade and the sea. Mayor Joan Monjo says that it will be called Plaça Marina. "I set up a special commission in which 15 people from the area - residents and tourist businesspeople - have participated. We have agreed on this project to establish a public space in a place that to date has been used privately."

Xisco Bergas of the opposition PSOE at the town hall denies that there is consensus. "We participated in various meetings in the summer and made some proposals to improve the project, if there was no way to save the pool. The mayor has not called us since. We now learn from the media that there is a definitive project."

The seafront project will cost the town hall around half a million euros, assuming the Costas give the go-ahead. The pool will disappear, but the solarium facing the sea and the beach bar will remain in the form of a fifty square metre terrace and a demountable chiringuito bar of twenty square metres. There will also be children's games, trees and some ornamental fountains.