Month: November 2016

San Antonio (Ibiza) Town Hall has presented its 2017 budget which will amount to 25.97M euros, 0.7% more than 2016 however it will not start to implement any of the recommendations of the ‘strategic plan’ that was undertaken by the ex-Mayor of Barcelona Jordi Hereu at a cost of 60,000 euros. 

Mayor Jose Tur said that they will devote about 400,000 euros to the drafting of projects and studies to see how plan can come to fruition.  He also said that another 400,000 euros has been set aside to carry out the day to day works of the plan but admitted that these are “things that have to be done anyway but will now be done with a script “.

The first projects of the Strategic Plan include an ‘Urban Mobility Plan’, an ‘Urban Landscape Plan’ , an ‘Incentive Program for the Improvement of the Level of Tourist Accommodation’ and ‘Plan for Improvement of the Bay’. None of these will be executed in 2017 but a draft plan will be put together to confirm how best to implement the recommendations.  The plan about the plan if you will…..

The major spend for 2017 will be the implementation of the new refuse collection service for the amount of 4.72M euros. The town hall will also make an important effort to improve their first aid service and adapt it to new regulations so will dedicate 390,000 euros to this issue, twice as much as the previous year.  The execution of the first phase of the project to open Calle Ametller in Ses Païsses will cost 800,000 euros and will serve to “greatly improve the mobility of this area”.

It is also planned to relocate the Local Police station bringing it closer to the town centre for which 400,000 euros will be invested.  The elimination of architectural barriers (street accessibility), one of the traditional subjects for San Antonio, still has no proper place in the budget and appears only in a general plan of “various actions” in urban improvements.

Mayor Tur and Councillor Fran Tienda devoted much of their presentation on the economic situation of San Antonio to deplore “the poor management developed by the previous government team” which they said plunged the municipal coffers into such a level of debt that the investment capacity of the council will be limited for several years to come.

Mayor Tur said that in 2015 “the total sum where payment is obligatory and unavoidable amounts to 18.7M euros, of which 705,500 euros is interest” but in addition Tur added that other disputed concepts where there isn’t a being “a firm obligation to pay” amount to 30.3M euros but these also include the hypothetical payment of compensation claimed by music mogul Michael Cretu for the demolition of his house in Santa Agnès.

The Mayor fears that because of the “lack of diligence produced in the defence of municipal interests since 2013 something may have to be paid to Mr Cretu”.

Source: Diario de Ibiza 

When it comes to true underdog stories it doesn’t get much better than this Wednesdays football match where SD Formentera play Sevilla FC in the 4th round of the Copa del Rey, Spain’s version of the FA Cup.

Similar to the FA Cup the Copa del Rey’s format allows the possibility of a minnow facing a giant and that’s exactly what has happened with this fixture courtesy of Formentera’s penalty shootout victory over CD Tudelano leaving them as the only 3rd division team left in the Cup. 

Here are few facts about the 2 teams to put the tie into more perspective. 

Formentera play in the Spanish 3rd division (Group 11), the 4th tier of Spanish football which features 360 teams divided into 18 regional groups.

Sevilla play in La Liga with Real Madrid and Barcelona, the 2 biggest clubs in the world. La Liga is the 4th richest league in world football. 

SD Formentera was formed in 1969. Sevilla is Spain’s oldest team and were founded in 1890

The Balearic island of Formentera has 12000 inhabitants. The Andalusian city of Seville has 700,000.  

Formentera’s stadium holds 1000 spectators although numbers will ‘swell’ to 3000 for this special occasion with the erection of temporary stands. Sevilla’s Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium holds 45,500.

Sevilla are the current UEFA Europa League champions having won it for the last 3 years beating Liverpool in last years Final. They finished 7th in La Liga last season. Formentera finished 2nd in their league. 

Sevilla played Juventus last week in the Champions League and Valencia at home on Saturday.  Formentera played Felanitx in Mallorca on Saturday. 

Sevilla lie 3rd in La Liga as do Formentera in the 3rd division (group 11). 

Sevilla’s current squad is worth an estimated 200,000,000 euros whilst Formentera’s is worth 25,000 euros. 

So as you can see it will be a mammoth task for Formentera to get anything out of the first leg although there will be a passionate home crowd (including me) cheering on the underdogs. The return leg in Sevilla is on 21 December and no matter what the results it will be a memorable couple of nights for the Balearic islanders. 

Taking all the facts into consideration there’s absolutely no way that Formentera can beat Sevilla, can they?

Oooo the magic of the Cup! 

For tickets to the match go to http://www.trasmapi.com website and put in the dates plus “PACKENTRADA” in the promotion code box. Price is approx 75 euros per person that includes the boat, bus to the ground and match ticket. See you there. 

The same Balearic government department that decided to cull the Es Vedra goats has now turned its attention to the ‘Vuelta Ibiza’ cycle race due to take place on the island on 14-16 April 2017.

2016’s race saw 1200 cyclists tackle a course that was made up of 60% nature trails and now the government environmentalists have said that this is unacceptable as it has too much effect on the island’s flora and fauna.

The race organisers reduced the nature trails to 25% but the government then came back with a maximum of 350 participants which wouldn’t even cover those from the island wishing to take part.

After a stand off between Palma and the race organisers a new line of positive dialogue has now opened with the organisers hoping for a compromise capping the participants at around 1000.

The organisers argue that you can’t apply the same rules to Ibiza as to Mallorca as most of Ibiza’s nature trails are open to the public whereas in Mallorca many are inaccessible.

The Palma politicians have now asked for an environmental impact review and will announce their decision over the coming weeks with the race organisers hoping for a positive outcome and also enough time to market their incredibly popular event. 

Once again San Antonio (Ibiza) is hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons. This time our politicians are making ‘jokes’ on social media using phrases such as ‘nude’, ‘little dicks’ and ‘gays’ whilst responding to news about the late arrival of winter uniforms for the local police.

Understandably this caused an outcry from the opposing parties and ended up with one of the culpable politicians promising to withdraw from social media for good (or so he says). 

What an avoidable mess. Not a day goes by in the world when a paid politician is not caught out by social media making an off the cuff remark or tweeting something in the early hours and then instantly regretting it when it’s taken out of context. When will they learn?

Social Media is ruthless. If you say it in public then it becomes public property whether you meant it in jest or not and you will be judged on it. Why give your adversaries the chance to mock?

Focus on the job in hand and inform the people of what you are doing to make our town better and if you want to make a joke to lighten the mood after a tough day in the office then say it amongst close confidants not on a platform that can be accessed by over a billion people.

The irony is that the politician in question built his whole election manifesto and garnered support via social media and interaction with his supporters. He is now finding out that social media can make you but it can also break you.

Publish and be damned….but don’t start crying about it later. 

Nearly 9 months after the Balearic Government sent ‘technicians’ to shoot dead the herd of 50 goats that lived on the islet of Es Vedra there has been sightings of up to 4 goats that are still alive.

“There are 4 or 5 goats and at least 1 male that managed to avoid the slaughter,” said Bartomeu Marí Rota, one of the owners of the islet of Es Vedra, known as the ‘Vedraners’. Marí also said that since the Government ordered the slaughter they have not taken any more goats to the island. “We will go and see them and make sure they have water. This year it has rained a lot and they have enough food” says the veteran vedraner who hopes the government sponsored ‘gunmen’ don’t reappear.

Marí said he had seen “up to 7 or 8 goats including 2 males fighting, but now maybe some have died because the last time we only saw 4”.

On 4 February 2016 two government technicians were sent to shoot the 50 goats inhabiting Es Vedra on the direct orders of the Ministry of the Environment to safeguard the endemic flora of the island, threatened by the presence of mammals. They also decided to leave the carcasses where they fell as this was the ‘safest option’.

The decision to cull the goats was greeted with much anger from island residents and animal lovers the world over resulting in 400 people marching through the streets of Ibiza town calling for the resignation of Mallorca based Caterina Amengual the director general of natural spaces and biodiversity and also the Balearic Minister of the Environment Miquel Vericad.

Coincidentally Sra Amengual was sacked from her position at the end of September blaming political infighting.

Goats 1 – 0 Armengual

Source: Periodico de Ibiza