News May 12th

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Sightseeing Transport
  Ibiza Town is set to have a new mode of transport this summer as rickshaws invade the island.  The company, Ibiza Bike Tours, run by Hungarian, Karoly Kittl, and Spaniard, Marta Tapia, wants to introduce 15 three-wheeled bicycle rickshaws to the island during the summer, giving tourists the opportunity to see the town at a more leisurely pace and in the hands of an expert guide.
  Kittl revealed the company is currently successfully working in Barcelona with 12 bikes, and having spent the summer in Ibiza last year, realised the island was ideal for this form of transport.  He claims the bikes will not be in direct competition with taxis, and said the concept was very different.  He added that the drivers were bike enthusiasts who would all undertake an intensive course into the history of the capital before being allowed to start work.  
  The rickshaw will not charge per kilometre like a taxi, but by time, with 15 minutes costing €8, half an hour €16, and a full hour, €24.  The bikes are fitted with an electric motor to help at the start and can travel at a maximum speed of 25 kmph.  Kittl added that although Dalt Vila would be out of bounds, the rest of the capital was extremely flat, and was ideal for this mode of transport.

Rubio Stands Ground
The councillor for transport at the Town Hall of Ibiza, Joan Rubio, repeated last week that he was confident the 61 temporary taxi licences due to be issued for this summer would be covered.  After the withdrawal of San Antonio, Santa Eulalia and San Juan from the process, it has now been left up to the two other municipalities to cover the needs of an island desperate for more taxis during the busy summer months. 
San Jose announced last week they would be filling their quota of 26 temporary permits, but would not be issuing any more.  This leaves just the capital’s administration to occupy the rest of the permits issued by the Consell Insular.
The controversy began after the Transport Minister, Albert Prats, announced back in November last year that he was to issue around 150 licences which would help cover the months of July, August and September.  To begin with everyone was happy at the news.  However, he then decided the licences would be split equally between current licence owners and drivers, claiming this was the democratic thing to do.  This displeased the licence owners who maintained they had the right to all of the temporary permits.  After a number of meetings with all of the parties involved, the Taxi Association eventually called a number of strikes.  This eventually ended after they realised Prats would not budge.  They did, however, send a letter to the minister specifying that none of the current licence owners would be applying for the temporary licences in question.
However, Rubio confirmed this week that none of the current licence owners had actually withdrawn their applications and at the moment he had enough applicants to fill the 61 places available.  He added that if there were any last minute withdrawals he would seek applications from drivers outside of the municipality, and underlined the importance of offering a reliable service to the tourists.
A list of the names of the 87 people who had won a licence was issued on Friday, although the president of the Taxi Association in Ibiza Town, Jose Serafin, revealed none of his members would be collecting a licence. 

Medieval Ibiza
The Medieval market which took place this weekend was once again a great success.  Both sunglasses and umbrellas were needed as the weather just refused to make up its mind and the constant showers on all of the three days reduced numbers to well below the 150,000 who visited last year.  However a great time was had by all those who made it and apologies to all for not putting it in the paper last week.

SAN ANTONIO
More Parking Spaces
San Antonio will soon have two more car parks in the town centre, the Councillor for construction, Joan Pantaleoni, announced on Wednesday.  The largest will be on the corner of calle Ample and calle Cervantes and will be able to hold a total of 40 vehicles.  The other slightly smaller facility will have room for 20 cars, and is located at the corner of calles Soledad and del Mar.  Both are temporary solutions which the Councillor is hoping will ease the parking problem during the summer.

Free Internet
The Town Hall of San Antonio announced last week it would be offering free internet access this summer.  The popular wireless system will be set up in el Passeig de ses Fonts and allow residents and tourists via a laptop or other device to connect to the world wide web.

SAN JOSE
No Plans for 2008
The Consell Insular admitted last week it was already too late for any action to be taken to avoid the usual parking chaos in the natural park of ses Salinas.  The Transport Minister, Albert Prats, said the situation would be solved at the same time as the new work to improve the entrance to the park.  This, he claimed, was still waiting for approval, but would hopefully be started next year.  The plans include widening the road, putting all the electric and telephone cables underground, and demolishing all of the disused buildings on the road.  Only when this was done would a car park also be built close to the beach.
Last year the owners of the disused land closest to the beach fenced off the area and opened their own private car park, a move which was criticised by most at the Consell.  However, it seems that for this year at least they will once again be powerless to stop such action. 

Plan of Excellence
The fiasco which has become the Plan of Excellence continued throughout the week with the opposition party calling for the resignation of the councillor for tourism, Maria Angeles Mostazo.
The week began with the mayor promising the road would be up and running by Saturday.  However, the work continued and continued and as the paper goes to print looks no closer to being completed.  The man himself took a stroll down the road on Thursday, accompanied by several of his party.  He admitted the situation was far from ideal but pleaded for patience and said it would be finished as soon as humanely possible.  He blamed the manager of the project, the architect Jose Antonio Cachon, for the delay and said he had not done his job properly and kept the Town Hall suitably informed.
Cachon said the delay was the fault of the company carrying out the work, Ferrovial Agroman, and that they had not met their deadlines. 
The many businesses affected called for the work to be stopped immediately, and the road opened so they are able to begin their season under some normality.  However, Ferrovial Agroman, the company undertaking the work said this option was unacceptable and amongst other things would leave some areas without illumination.  They promised to finish all the work within 12 days and revealed they had brought in extra staff to continue working around the clock in three separate shifts. 
A spokesman for the company continued by explaining that the delay, in some part, was due to hard rock which was found in front of the hotel Pinet Playa, which had slowed down the entire project.
Parts of the es Caló road were asphalted and cleared of rubble towards the end of the week, but the cleaners were still to appear and the entire area remained a mess.
The calls by the opposition party were made on Wednesday after tour operators threatened to send clients to other resorts to avoid complaints.  Shops, bars, cafes and restaurants in the area also demanded more information about when the work was eventually going to finish, with some threatening court action for the damage caused to their businesses during the first half of May.      
However, during a winter of much discontent, the sight of members of the opposition criticising the project is just too ridiculous for much comment, suffice to say they were the ones that actually started the 12 month project four years ago, a plan they said would transform the bay!

SANTA EULALIA
Mari U-turn
The mayor of Santa Eulalia, Vicent Mari, has left the door open for further discussion regarding the location of the capital’s water purifier.  He said the matter should be treated as urgent and the worsening smell and deposits left by the current installation needed to be resolved immediately. 
The water purifier planned for Ibiza Town has caused much debate over the last few months, after suggestions it could be built inside the boundaries of Santa Eulalia.  The proposals were immediately dismissed by Mari who said it was unthinkable and that he would do everything in his power to stop it. 
However, he now seems to have made a slight U-turn and hinted on Monday he would be ready to talk.  However, he argued the two possible locations available within the capital, sa Serra des Collet and sa Coma would first have to be ruled out.  He urged the Govern Balear to stop dragging its feet and to decide once and for all if either of the two were viable options.  He added that if both were ruled out due to technical reasons, then a suitable alternative would have to be found, in whichever municipal.  However, he warned the new location would have to have a limited effect on the environment and nearby houses.

GPS Installed
A Global Positioning System (GPS) is to be installed in a total of 66 vehicles in Santa Eulalia and San Juan from June.  It is hoped the new system will greatly improve the efficiency of the entire fleet by up to 60 per cent.  The device, which will be installed in every car and controlled by a central office, will allow the operator to know exactly which vehicle is closer to the next pick up point, and immediately contact them, saving time. 
The system will also be available to hotels, which will have a small machine installed at reception enabling them to contact the closest taxi directly, without the need to call. 
The cost of installing the new system in every car will be between €1,500 and €2,500, although the managing director of the system, Juan Torres, was quick to point out the advantages.  These include allowing the customer to pay by credit card, and a special button which will alert the central office in the case of an emergency.   

Police Work Up
The chief of police in Santa Eulalia, Armando Riera, revealed officers had to attend to 31 per cent more incidents during 2007 than the previous year.  The rise was mainly due to the municipality’s crackdown on drink-driving which led to 102 arrests throughout the year.  This was up from just 26 in 2006.  Their presence at accidents was also up by 169, although there was a sharp reduction in the overall number of resultant injuries.
Cases of domestic violence were down year on year (23 to 20), signs the national campaigns were beginning to have an affect. 
Riera claimed the municipality on the whole was very quiet but did admit the arrival of the tourist season meant a slight increase in the number of crimes committed.  He added that the 45 officers currently employed were at times overstretched during the busy summer months due to the expansiveness of the municipality, but that extra hours on the beat would ensure the municipality continued to be amongst the safest in the Balearics.        

SAN JUAN
No Agreement Reached
The emergency meeting called on Monday by the mayor of San Juan, between the land owners in Benirras and the Govern Balear, ended without an agreement being reached between the respective parties.  After the meeting, which lasted just over three hours, both groups claimed the demands of the other were unacceptable.  The area will now be completely protected as had been originally planned, and the new legislation was in fact passed the following day.  The law will ban building in five areas on the island, Benirras, Cala d´Hort, Roca Llisa, ses Feixes and Punta Pedrera.  This will mean the land owners in possession of a licence to build in any of these areas will be unable to carry out their planned projects.
The Govern, pressured by the mayor, Antoni Mari, had offered the holders of a permit the option of building on part of their land.  It also agreed for a total of 21 properties to be built in all, although all would have to be constructed on land lower down, so as to cause less of a visual impact in the area.  However, all of the projects would have had to be considerably smaller than that stated on the existing permits, an option described as unacceptable by the licence holders.
Lawyers representing the group said they will now take their case to the courts and seek compensation, claims which could rise to €50 million.    

CRIME & INCIDENTS
Woman Jailed
The Dutch woman who was arrested back in November 2007 after injuring two police officers was sentenced to a year in prison on Friday.  The incident began after the patient was told on arrival for an appointment at Can Misses hospital that she could not be seen by her regular gynaecologist and would be attended by a substitute.  It was at this point the woman became both irate and violent.  Officers were called to backup the security guards, who were trying to calm the patient.  When they arrived she became even more nervous and in the ensuing struggle bit one of the officers on the hand.  She also threatened to burn the hospital down with all of the staff inside.
In addition to the prison sentence she was also ordered to pay each officer €500 in compensation. 

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