It’s all happening in Alcudia’s port

All good stuff for many a business, but this never stops the gripes. Hey ho, perhaps people should just chill out and accept that roads are for multiple users. Yes, but not everyone does chill out, be they drivers, cyclists, scooter riders, horse carriages, tourists on those trike things, quads and buggies. Post-Covid, not yet quite the official season, and at times it’s bedlam.

Meanwhile, the fishermen’s pier and the marquee that was put up for the sepia fair in the port will this weekend host the third event over consecutive weekends. Following the “great success” of the sepia fair - the town hall’s words and who is to question them, given that some 20,000 people turned out - last weekend it was La Gran Verbena Kids. Another success, this came replete with a concert by jolly Mallorcan popsters Xanguito. This weekend, it’s the Feria de Abril, the Alcudia take on the Seville fair, which has been transferred from its one-time location not far from the post office and Mercadona in the town.

There are, as might be imagined, some grumbles about three events in the space of three weeks - the Feria de Abril will go until 2am this Friday and Saturday and 11pm on Sunday. The sepia fair music went on later. Only La Gran Verbena, on account of kids, called it a day at an early 10pm. Still, it all makes for a vibrant atmosphere and all before the official season starts.

There is a great deal going on generally. The Circaire festival of street circus - some performances in the port - starts on Thursday (May 4) and runs until May 7. Away from Alcudia, there is the Pollensa Wine Fair on May 6 and 7, while Buger has its Fira des Jai, the fair of the old man (or grandfather), the schedule for which - at time of writing - hadn’t been announced. One assumes that it will be announced, but then Buger town hall’s communications do leave something to be desired.

Smashing up the school in Sa Pobla

There are youthful high spirits and there is outright vandalism. Between 25 and 30 ‘quintos’ broke into the Can Peu Blanc school in Sa Pobla and went on a rampage that resulted in - among other things - broken computer screens, doors kicked in, and excrement in corridors.

The school and Sa Pobla town hall were, naturally enough, absolutely furious. Apart from the damage and mess, classes had to be suspended. The facts were denounced to the Guardia Civil, while the mayor, Llorenç Gelabert, summoned students to the town hall to demand explanations and to administer a dressing-down. Sa Pobla police subsequently had a meeting with the school, the students and their parents. At this, the school made clear that it expected those responsible to pay for the damage and for the cost of the clean-up.

* Quintos is a word that comes from the fifteenth century and refers to military service - one in every five young men was called up; quinto is a fifth. Nowadays, a quinto is someone who reaches the age of majority. In the Sa Pobla case, these were Quintos ‘05.

The mainland electricity cable will not affect health, says the Ombudsam

The Defensor del Pueblo is Spain’s Ombudsman and, as such, defends the rights of citizens as set out in the Spanish Constitution. This can therefore mean a supervisory role when it comes to the actions of the government. One of these actions concerns the second mainland electricity cable and the plan for it to arrive in Alcudia.

An Alcudia resident sent a complaint about the cable to the Defensor del Pueblo, the headquarters of which are in Madrid. The number two at the office, Patricia Bárcena, has responded to this, and the VAAC platform of residents affected by the cable is, to say the least, unimpressed.

On the potentially negative health impacts, Bárcena’s letter says that current regulation regarding such cables conforms to international recommendations. On electromagnetic fields, the letter states that there is at present no scientific evidence to suggest that effects harmful to health will occur, so long as exposure levels are complied with. It goes on to advise the resident that once the cable becomes operational, information should be requested from the regional inspectorate in respect of radioelectric emissions and the effects of electromagnetic fields on health.

A problem with this, certainly where some of the opponents to the cable are concerned, is that it would be too late. They don’t want the cable, full stop. Waiting until it is operational isn’t an option.

The VAAC is disappointed by the response, describing the Defensor del Pueblo as “another politicised public institution” and pointing out that the national ministry for ecological transition itself first recommended that this type of cabling should be a “minimum” of 200 metres from urban centres. It has been claimed that in certain instances it could be as little as four metres from homes. Nowhere in the letter does Bárcena refer to this recommendation.