Back to Bedlam
Can Misses was plunged into chaos on Wednesday as medical staff carried out their third day of strike action, causing cancellations and anger amongst the many patients who turned up at the hospital. In total 735 appointments with General Practitioners, 409 specialist consultancies and nine operations had to be cancelled due to the strike, with no patients being forewarned.
The total number of staff who observed the action differed according to the source, with the local Health Authority, Ib-Salut, claiming it was followed by just 51 per cent in the medical centres across the island, and 33.3 per cent in Can Misses. A spokesman for the Union, however, said the figures were closer to 97 and 90 per cent.
Wednesday was the third day of strike action following those called last Monday and Tuesday. In total, over the three days, 4,500 appointments have had to be cancelled, with administration staff claiming it will take months to clear the backlog. Some departments, including gynaecology, revealed they would begin special consultancies during the afternoons after the Easter holiday, to try and bring down the numbers on the waiting list, although other departments claimed they would not be putting in any extra hours until the crisis has been resolved.
The main sticking point remains the hourly figure for on-call doctors on the island. They currently get paid 19/hour, significantly less than in other parts of the country. In emergency talks held at the beginning of the week, the Union lowered their demands from 27 to 24, accepting 27 on national holidays. However the Union failed to budge from the 21 they have been offering since the negotiations began. Staff are also asking for an extra insular payment to be made, which is currently the case in Formentera and all of the Canary Islands.
The head of the Medical Union, Nacho Fernandez, said a permanent strike had not been ruled out, and if agreement could not be reached soon, it would be their only option.
The next strike is due to take place on 25th March. If you do have an appointment for this day, please do phone the day before. Due to the usual bizarre bureaucracy they will not be able to change your appointment, but it will at least save you a wasted journey.

AROUND THE ISLAND

Compensation Pay Outs
The special department set up last year to attend those affected by the forced land and property buy outs due to the construction of the dual carriageways, has so far dealt with 193 enquiries. The new Consell promised back in May last year, having just taken over, that they would pay everyone affected by the end of 2008, a promise they are closer to achieving than many could have predicted. In total over 8.8 million euros compensation has so far been paid out to land and property owners who were in some way affected by the building of the San Antonio-Ibiza and Ibiza-Airport roads, which caused such controversy whilst being built.

Deadline Brings No Answer
The Consell Insular has received a total of 226 applications for temporary taxi permits. The closing day for requests was on Monday, a day in which they received a considerable number. Current licence owners made 140 applications, with 86 applications from drivers. These will be put into a hat and drawn out next month, in order to finally decide who is to receive the two-month permit.
The Transport Minister, Albert Prats, claimed the high number of applications from drivers proved they also wanted the permits, despite the Taxi Association maintaining this sector would not be interested in the authorisations. He said he was happy with the high quota of applicants, and claimed this gave him confidence if he ever needed to increase the number of licences in the future, something which he has not ruled out.
Both Santa Eulalia and San Juan received less requests than permits on offer, which will force the Consell to give the additional licences to those interested from other municipals. Of the 136 licences to be granted, 52 are based in Ibiza Town, 31 in San Antonio, 21 in Santa Eulalia, 26 in San Jose and 6 in San Juan. The licences will run for two months during the busiest weeks of summer.
The news came as the first real cracks started to appear amongst taxi drivers. It was reported at the beginning of the week that the strike action was only being supported by around 15 per cent of licence owners and drivers, and that the rest had been cajoled into the drastic measures. One driver, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed they were happy with the course of action being taken by the Consell, and understood the reasons behind it. They added that it would also help in summer to counteract the problem of unlicensed operators.
The strike action is set to continue over the next few weeks as the Consell pushes ahead with their plans. The Taxi Association revealed they have planned a mass demonstration on 27th March from 11a.m. in which they will drive their cars from one of the taxi ranks in the capital to the Consell building. The news came on the back of a statement by the Town Hall of Ibiza in which they revealed they had fined a total of five licence owners 1,383 each for not maintaining a minimum service during the night of New Years Eve.

New Cards Introduced
Voramar el Gaucho, the bus company which runs all of the routes in Ibiza Town and a considerable number in San Antonio, has introduced a digital card system which is expected to save regular users around 25 per cent. The system was introduced last Monday, and operates with rechargeable cards which just need to be waved in front of a scanner installed next to the driver, which will then deduct the cost of the journey from the card. These can be topped up in all buses and stations in amounts of 15, 20 or 25. The card will cost users 3, although the first 50 were given away free to try and promote the new process. The system will eventually be introduced all over the island, making public transport that much cheaper and simpler for those regular users.

PP Clearout
The backlash from the poor election results of the PP party began to take affect on the island during the week with several senior party members resigning, or at the very least, declaring their intention not to run at the next elections. Despite gaining voters on a national scale, The Partido Popular suffered their worst results within the Balearics for almost 20 years. However, the situation was even worse in both Ibiza and Formentera, as Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his socialist party swept in to Government for the second time.
There was much dismay in Palma as senior members of the PP party called for heads to roll in Ibiza and Minorca, as the two islands pegged back the normal PP landslide. The result finished level in the Balearics as a whole, with each party winning four seats in Government. However, they were blown away in Ibiza with the PSOE winning democratic elections on the island for the first time in their history and what a win it was. The PSOE managed to capture 50.73 per cent of the vote, a rise of 5.95 per cent from 2004, with the PP party running a distant second with 42.54 per cent (down 2.34 per cent).
The PSOE party, in fact, won in four of the islands municipalities, with the PP triumphing in just two, San Juan and Santa Eulalia, although in the former with a considerably reduced minority compared to 2004. The biggest loser of the evening was the mayor of San Juan, Antoni Mari Mari Carraca, who eventually lost in the race for the senate by a huge 8.20 per cent to the PSOE candidate, Pere Torres Casetes. The mayor is not accustomed to tasting defeat, having triumphed in the municipal elections last year with over 78 per cent of the vote, one of the highest in Spain. However, when relying on the votes of the whole island, he was unable to convince the voters and was eventually made to pay.
The result led to Pere Palau, the second in command on the island, announcing he would not be running at the next elections, and would be standing down at the first available opportunity. He had wanted to resign after being beaten in the race for the presidency of the Consell by his rival, Xico Tarres, however he was talked out of it by close allies. He said the results proved it was now time for a complete renovation with new faces bringing in fresh ideas. He said it was important that the changes took place sooner rather than later, and promised not to stand in the way of party reforms
The president of the party on the island claimed, after an emergency meeting on Monday night, that his party was unable to reach a significant amount of island residents with their message. He added that the youth had still not been won over, a statistic which needed to change over the next few months.

Training Week
Fire crews in Ibiza took part throughout the week in a series of simulations at the three new tunnels on the island. Staff from the fire service of Navarra in northern Spain were flown in to the island to teach the basic techniques of dealing with a fire inside a tunnel. Firemen here have never previously had to deal with such a circumstance, a situation which changed last year with the completion of the new dual carriageways and the tunnels at San Rafael and Can Cifre.
At precisely 3.45p.m. on Tuesday traffic at San Rafael was stopped and diverted through the town. Two disused cars were then placed in the tunnel and two dummies positioned in each one. At around 5p.m. two smoke machines were let off and the operation began.
It was the job of the two crews, each of three firefighters, to enter the tunnel and rescue the victims. They used both gas masks and thermal cameras during the demonstration, which was completed after 15 minutes.
Similar simulations took place at Can Cifre on Wednesday and Thursday, with other members of the emergency services joining the demonstration on Friday. The training week was described as crucial in preparing the fire crews on the island against any potential emergency situations inside the tunnels.
It also highlighted some defects in the structure of the tunnels, with the fire chief, Miguel Sevilla, claiming ventilation was extremely slow and would need to be improved.

Flight Routes
Air Nostrum has promised to increase their service to and from the island after increasing pressure from the Transport Minister, Albert Prats. The company revealed, whilst announcing their new flight programme which is due to start at the end of this month, that they would add a connection with the capital, Madrid, which left the island at 6a.m. and returned at 10.40pm, ensuring travellers do not have to stay the night. It will also be a relief for those with international flight connections via the capital. The earliest flight to Madrid had previously left the island at 10.40a.m, too late to make many of the early morning international connections. A spokesman for Air Nostrum said the route would cost them more money, as it would mean staff spending the night on the island, but they said they were willing to make the investment in a route they believed in.
Prats said the improvements were, in part, thanks to an intensive round of talks held by the Consell Insular with the company. The new routes include an additional connection with Paris. The direct flight to Minorca will also continue, although the company announced that despite carrying 10,664 passengers so far, it was still not economically viable.

AENA Say Yes
As had been predicted, the Airport Authorities (AENA) finally gave permission to the Govern Balear to use the six metres of land belonging to the airport of Ibiza to finish the final part of the airport road. The news means the Govern can forge ahead with plan A which will include just one lane in each direction, an emergency lane and pavements on both sides of the road. The total size of the construction will be around 30 per cent less than the project originally drawn up by the previous administration.
The Govern decided to wait for an answer from AENA instead of going ahead with plan B, after receiving assurances of a favourable answer. The project is now available for all to see in the Consell building, and it is hoped it can be completed by the start of the season.

Bolkestein Block
The Minister for Business Development at the Consell Insular, Joan Serra Mayans, promised small businesses protection against the threat of a superstore invasion to the island. Simply put, the Bolkestein Directive, named after the EU´s former market commissioner, Frits Bolkestein, will ensure a single market in services by sweeping away systems of national and industry regulation. The commissioner argued that differing legislation is a barrier for service providers moving from one country to another.
It was feared that the introduction of these regulations would mean Ibiza would no longer be able to restrict the size of commercial premises, as it has been doing until now. However, Mayans revealed there were other ways of restricting the size of a commercial property, with environmental legislation just one of the methods which could be used to stop the invasion.

Routine Testing
Police officers in the Balearics who carry a fire arm will have to pass a series of psychological tests, thanks to new legislation introduced last week. The announcement made by the Govern Balear will mean officers having to take the test every three years. The new regulation will affect a total of 2,000 officers across the 67 municipals. Sources at the Govern said the new measures were to ensure a stricter control on those carrying guns, and a greater safety for the general public.

Ferré Plea Rejected
The Local Courts have rejected a plea by the hotelier, Fernando Ferré, to have the case against him annulled due to a lack of evidence. The controversial businessman, who fronts the hotel group GPS (Grupo Playa Sol), which now owns over 70 hotels on the island, was arrested back in February 2006 after police raided two of his properties. Thirty police officers took part in the swoop, along with inspectors from the Interior Department, on two hotels in the bay of San Antonio which were being reformed at the time. A total of 30 Romanians and two Moroccans were detained outside the s´Estanyol and San Remo hotels, although figures estimated there were up to 150 workers there at the time. Ferré was arrested the same day, along with three other people at the site, who it is claimed were responsible for the reform work and recruiting illegal staff.
The businessman has pleaded innocent from the start, saying he merely hired the company to do the appropriate work and the workers found had nothing to do with him. However after the decision by the judge, he looks set to stand trial over the incident and could face a custodial sentence.

Blunt Performance
According to local newspaper reports James Blunt is to perform two concerts this summer in the Balearics, one in Palma and the other in Ibiza, although the exact locations are being kept secret for the time being. The singer, who has a house in Santa Gertrudis and is a regular visitor to the island, shot to fame with the 2005 multi-award winning album Back to Bedlam, which included the hit single Youre Beautiful.

IBIZA TOWN

Building Delay
The jewel of the controversial Eivissa Centre project, the Joan XXIII building, is to be completed this year according to the Councillor for Town Planning, Vicent Torres. The project was stopped back in 2006 by the former PP-run Consell Insular, after complaints it was not being built to the original plans. After a year and a half of squabbling, the project was given the green light in January, although work is still to get underway. The Town Hall in Ibiza said it would begin again soon, and was not likely to take more than 12 months to complete.
The building, on the outskirts of town, will be used in part to re-house residents of the Santa Margarita building, which is to be knocked down as part of the plans.
The Eivissa Centre project, which it is hoped will totally remodel the centre of the capital, has caused considerable controversy since it began in 2004 and has been the subject of constant arguing between the two main political parties on the island. It also hit the headlines last year when it was suggested the PSOE party had taken bribes from the constructors who eventually won the right to build the project, Brues SA.

New Centre Open
This Monday saw the unofficial opening of the new Health Centre at Vila in Ibiza Town. Although the ribbon cutting and baby-kissing will take place next month, the centre, located in avenida Vuit d´Agost, has already begun to receive its first patients. A&E was the first department to be opened, with GPs, paediatricians, dentists and physiotherapists starting work on 25th March. The centre will offer relief to the already strained Can Misses hospital, with registered patients dropping from 27,600 to 16,213. Similarly, the centre will take some of the workload from the Health Centre at es Viver, with registered patients falling from 33,068 to 28,841. In total there will be 15,877 people registered at the new centre.
The centre will be the first to have an A&E department in the capital, and it is predicted that it will attend up to 80 patients every day.
The general manager of Ib-Salut, the local Health Authority, Francisco Cárceles, urged people to take advantage of the A&E department of not only the new centre, but also those in San Antonio and Santa Eulalia. He said the facilities were first-class and all emergencies which did not need hospitalisation could be dealt with.
The new centre is 2,979 square metres in size, and built on three floors. It has 48 consultancy rooms, an A&E observation room, a fully-equipped gymnasium for physiotherapy, an operating room for minor surgical procedures and full staff facilities. In total there will be 58 professionals within the centre, 23 of which have been newly contracted, with the rest being transferred from both Can Misses and es Viver. The centre cost 8.1 million to build.

Fines Rise
The Town Hall in Ibiza passed new legislation on Thursday which is set to increase the fines in the blue parking zones from 30 to 50. The moves have been made, according to sources, due to the carefree attitude of a minority of residents, who have been ignoring the rules and parking in the zones for several hours or even all day. However, the possibility of cancelling the fine at a cost of 3 in the hour following its issue will remain.
The rises came on the back of news that one of the PP Councillors currently in opposition at the Town Hall, had accumulated a total of 36 unpaid fines. Adrian Trejo, who bizarrely enough reports on matters of law and order within the capital refused to comment on the affair. His leader, Virtudes Marí, said it was a private issue and she would not be speaking to him about the fines. However the following day a party official said he had agreed to pay the fines and would be making a public apology for the error soon.

SAN JOSE

Plans to Stay Put
The Councillor for Town Planning in San Jose, Josep Antoni Prats, announced on Thursday an extension to the public viewing of the new land use plan of the municipality. The plan classifies different types of land as buildable and non-buildable, and exactly how much land is needed to begin construction. Prats confirmed that there had been a flood of enquiries since the plans were first released and more time was needed to deal sufficiently with all of them.
However, he did announce that the ban on permits had now come to an end in those areas which had not been re-classified under the new proposals. Landowners will now be able to ask for building permission on land which has not changed classification, to avoid any future misunderstanding, according to the Councillor.

SANTA EULALIA

First Birthday
The luxury retirement home, built close to Jesus, celebrated its first anniversary last week with the general manager, Marta Vilas, claiming all of the first year targets had been reached. The futuristic centre offers retired people or those convalescing, state of the art facilities to aid in their recovery or to help look after them in their advancing years. The ambitious project was undertaken by the Vilas family who run the private Policlinica Ntra. Sra. del Rosario hospital in Ibiza Town.
There are currently 25 people residing at the home, 30 per cent of the total capacity. However, 60 individuals have passed through the premises as part of their rehabilitation programme.
The premises also incorporates 24 state of the art apartments, 19 of which have been sold.

Car Chase
A spectacular car chase close to the centre of Santa Eulalia ended with the arrest of a man on Sunday night. The incident began after police noticed several men acting suspiciously in the public car park in the calle Juan Tur, an area popular for the sale of drugs. The police car parked at the entrance to block the cars exit. However, as the men scattered, two of the suspects got in the car, a Seat Leon, and raced the wrong way down a one-way street to try and avoid being stopped. The police car followed and so began a chase through the outskirts of the town which ended on the San Juan road. The men, realising they were not going to get away, stopped the car and both tried to make a run for it in opposite directions. The police chased the passenger of the vehicle, managing to arrest him, after several minutes. The driver of the vehicle initially escaped but was arrested the following day after being recognised by one of the police officers involved in the chase. After a two hour interrogation by officers, the Moroccan man eventually confessed to being at the wheel and was arrested for dangerous driving.

CRIME & INCIDENTS
Two More Fatalities
Excessive speed is being blamed for an accident which left one person dead and three injured last Sunday evening. The accident took place close to the airport on the through road towards San Jose. There were a total of four youngsters in the white BMW 325.
Investigators revealed the car left the road after a sharp left-hand bend. It then turned over several times leaving one of the passengers trapped inside. Emergency services were soon on the scene, and all of the occupants were rushed to Can Misses. The most serious was an 18 year old girl who had been in the rear of the car without her seatbelt fastened. She was the first to be taken to the hospital due to her deteriorating condition. She was pronounced dead at just after midnight, after surgeons failed in their attempts to save her life.
The other three victims were also taken to Can Misses. The driver, who had been wearing his seatbelt, fractured his shoulder blade and collarbone and remained in hospital for most of the week. The other girl, who was also in the rear of the car, without her seatbelt, suffered a broken pelvis and was recovering in hospital. The fourth passenger, who was in the front passenger seat with his seatbelt fastened, escaped with only minor injuries and was released the following day.
The road death was followed just five days later by another fatal accident, this time on the San Miguel road. It occurred at 7.30a.m. as the victim, a 21 year old girl, was on her way to work. Initial investigations have revealed that she lost control of her car, a Peugeot 206, as she was overtaking another vehicle at km9. The car then overturned several times before coming to rest at the side of the road. Emergency services were immediately called to the scene but failed in their attempts to revive the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene. She was alone in the car and was wearing her seatbelt.
The two accidents were the second and third fatalities on the island so far this year. All three have startling similarities, having been caused by excess speed and both involving youngsters under the age of 25.

Prison Sentence
A 22 year old Romanian youth, who was arrested after stealing a luxury BMW from a house in Santa Eulalie, was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday. The man was arrested as he tried to board a boat to Denia in the port of San Antonio. The defendant broke into the house in November of last year, eventually making his way down to the garage to steal the car, even though it had a flat tyre at the time. The incident caused so much stress to the owner of the house that she suffered a miscarriage. When arrested the defendant denied all knowledge of the robbery, claiming he had bought the car for 8,000 on the street. However, police easily linked him to the robbery and he eventually admitted to the crime.

Eighteen Months for Irish Pair
The two Irishmen arrested last month after beating up a German man in a revenge attack as he entered his home in San Antonio, were both sentenced to prison on Wednesday. After an agreement was reached between the public prosecutor and the defendants lawyer, the judge sentenced the two to 18 months behind bars. The two men will also have to pay a total of 930 to the victim. The victim suffered a variety of injuries across his body, including a broken nose. The exact motive for the attack is not known.
It later came to light that one of the attackers has a 16 month suspended sentence pending for robberies committed last year, meaning he will have to now serve the two sentences concurrently.

Wanted Man Arrested
It was revealed last week the 35 year old Romanian man arrested in San Antonio last week for attacking his partner with a chair, is wanted by police in Alicante in connection with the murder of a man in the town. Antonio M.U., the manager of a brothel, was shot in the head three times outside the establishment on the outskirts of Alicante in the early hours of 29th October. Two men were arrested for his murder in the weeks following the attack, and a warrant was issued for a third man.
The man was arrested by police in San Antonio last week following the incident with his partner, in which he is accused of throwing a chair at her, causing severe facial injuries. However, during the speedy trial arranged a few days later, the woman backed down and said the chair had slipped from his grasp.
By this time officers in Valencia had been made aware of the arrest and flew to the island to question the man. He was sent to prison while it was decided if he would eventually be taken back to Alicante.

Six Month Sentence
The Ibicencan man, Antonio T.R., arrested last April aboard a boat carrying 3.7 tonnes of hashish, was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on Friday. The total value of the drugs was estimated to be in the region of 16 million. There were a total of nine arrests made in connection with the incident, three of whom, including the sentenced man, were on board the boat at the time it was stopped.

Untimely Death
The Ibiza Sun was saddened to hear about the death of Juan last Friday. Juan was a very well known and popular figure within the English community, especially in San Antonio. We would like to send our deepest condolences to his wife Terri, their children Sofia and Amelie and family.

NEWS FROM THE MAINLAND

Rajoy to Stay On
The opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, who last Sunday lost the general elections to the Socialists for the second time, announced he would not be standing down as party leader. The surprise move came after a near two hour meeting with his closest allies and other senior members of the party. Rajoy said he had decided to stand in the elections for the party leadership, planned for this June, because he thought it was best for the Partido Popular and for the country.
The decision came as a shock to most political observers who were convinced two defeats against the Prime Minister, Jose Luis Zapatero, would be enough to convince the opposition leader it was time for fresh blood. However, it appears that support for Rajoy within his own party is on the increase, with party members buoyed by the narrowing of the gap between the two fierce rivals.
If Rajoy were to triumph at the Spanish general elections in 2012, he would be the third man in history to triumph at the third attempt following Jose Maria Aznars win in 1996 and Felipe Gonzalez Marquez in 1982.

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