I have had cause on various occasions to highlight how projects can get bogged down because of the number of authorities involved. It's like the old lightbulb joke. How many authorities does it take ... (add as applicable)? On the main Carretera Arta road along the Bay of Alcudia, the joke is completed thus - "to agree to a cycle lane".
Those of you with long enough memories may recall that this initiative - a strategic initiative, no less - was first given an airing thirteen years ago. The plan was for a cycle lane from Puerto Alcudia to Can Picafort and beyond. The beyond was originally Son Real, but Santa Margalida town hall is taking it further to Son Serra. Which is fine. Santa Margalida town hall has generally just got on with things.
There was also talk of a before in that this cycle lane would connect to the one along the Bay of Pollensa coastal road. But let's not overcomplicate matters and stick with the three municipalities on the Bay of Alcudia. Santa Margalida is the only one of the three to have genuinely been achieving anything in pursuit of realising the strategic initiative aim, the strategy centring firmly on cycling tourism.
Cycle lane in Alcudia. No wonder it's barely used. Photo: Elena Ballestero.
In Alcudia, the town hall does escape criticism because it wasn't the town hall who created the dumb lanes that appeared some years ago. It was the Council of Mallorca. One remembers well that the then mayor, Toni Mir, was as surprised as anyone when the Council dispatched a team of workers to paint side roads. Not just surprised but also staggered, as these lanes were clearly inadequate. Parts of the lanes are more or less unusable because of road defects - tree roots pushing the surface up, for instance. Very few cyclists have ever used them.
The Alcudia fiasco aside, the greatest stumbling block has been Playa de Muro. Little attention has been given to how a cycle lane could be well accommodated in Sector One - as far as the bridge (which is a whole issue in itself) coming from Alcudia, as the focus of the attention has been past the bridge and on to Can Picafort. And it is here that the authorities all gang up - Muro town hall, the Council of Mallorca, the Balearic government (in the form of its natural environment ministry, as it is now known) and, no surprise, the Costas Authority.
At one point, Muro town hall took umbrage at the fact that it appeared as it would have to stump up most of the cost. Concerns were allayed by promises of funding from the government. All was seemingly good - or as good as could have been expected - before there was the realisation that the cycle lane (two lanes, both sides of the road) would affect Albufera. This is where the government is part of the story because the Nature Park comes under the environment ministry. The problem was that some of Albufera would have to be given over to create the lane(s). The then tourism councillor in Alcudia, Joan Gaspar Vallori, said that there could surely be agreement for what amounted to no more than 1.5 metres.
Well, there was a sort of agreement, after which everything went quiet. Nothing was happening. There was silence until a few days ago, when it was made clear that the Costas Authority hasn't given its authorisation. Why should this cycle lane have anything to do with the Costas? There are two reasons. One is that the Costas have asked the Council of Mallorca to prove that it actually owns the road. Main roads such as this one are Council property - normally anyway. The other reason has to do with where the Spanish government's directorate for the coasts draws the coastal demarcation line, meaning that part of the coast which is deemed to be maritime-terrestrial public domain, the domain of the Costas Authority.
This all stems from the Costas attempts to redraw the line and which have been the cause of the issues in Ses Casetes des Capellans - cottages threatened with demolition, restaurants being deprived of terraces. While it might be thought that the road is that far inland that this shouldn't be an issue, this seemingly isn't the case.
At Muro town hall, a despairing mayor, Miquel Porquer, says: "We've been waiting years for other authorities to carry out this project. We were willing to spend 240,000 euros for separation barriers by the Albufera Nature Park, but we've stopped including this amount in the annual budgets because there are so many problems."
Will this strategic project ever be realised? Don't put any money on it.
I thought the Costas had given over much of their responsibilities to the Mallorcan Govt? Clearly I’m mistaken or something’s up. Either way, whenever stories emerge that involve the Costas, it’s never good news.
The Arta road in Playa de Muro and Playa Alcudia is pretty much a giant cycle lane this time of year anyway. There’s no way a 1.5 either way cycle lane can accommodate the numbers now riding up and down it.
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I thought the Costas had given over much of their responsibilities to the Mallorcan Govt? Clearly I’m mistaken or something’s up. Either way, whenever stories emerge that involve the Costas, it’s never good news. The Arta road in Playa de Muro and Playa Alcudia is pretty much a giant cycle lane this time of year anyway. There’s no way a 1.5 either way cycle lane can accommodate the numbers now riding up and down it.