Cheap Housing
On Monday the Balearic Government announced it had bought a total of 25 duplexes on the island which it would sell to the neediest on the island. As part of a scheme known as VPO, (Affordable Housing Project), the Govern bought a total of 15 buildings across the Balearics, just one of which is in Ibiza, although the director in charge of the project, Catalina Cladera, claimed she was delighted to have at least one, and claimed it had been unexpected. She explained that the low price of the VPOs (they are purchased for around €1,900/metre2) meant it was extremely difficult to find such properties in Ibiza due to the high price of the land. She continued that her organisation was taking advantage of the slowdown in the housing market to convince promoters unable to sell their properties to sell them unsold stock at knockdown prices.
Cladera explained that the duplexes bought in San Antonio, were 3-bedroomed properties and had a total floor space of around 90m2. She explained the Govern had spent €4.5 million on the properties, which brings their individual cost to around €180,000 per duplex (around €2,000/m2).
Hard-up families will now have the opportunity to rent a VPO at a significantly reduced rate, with the chance to buy further down the line at a more economic price than market value. Cladera continued that 50 per cent of the rental costs paid over the period the family were living there would also be knocked off the price.
She finished by explaining that, in today’s economic climate, this was the only way some families would be able to enter the property market. The VPOs in question on the island are still in construction and should be finished by early next year.The move by the Balearic Government comes at a time when the construction sector is in free-fall. The president of the College of Architects in the Balearics, Luis Corral, predicted things would get even worse during the course of the year, and that it would not be until 2011 that the industry made even the most minimal recovery. His doom and gloom was backed up by statistics which showed a 66 per cent reduction in the number of properties built on the island in 2008.

AROUND THE ISLAND
Court Strike
Wednesday saw judges and magistrates in the Balearic region take part in the first day of what could be a series of strikes. The historic action was called after the authorities did not come up with the necessary assurances that conditions inside the Law Courts, especially those in Ibiza, would be improved.The previous day Judge Pablo Mendoza revealed that a minimum service would be offered to ensure cases involving prisoners, domestic violence, and those deemed to be urgent could go ahead without any delays. He said the strike would mean the cases not included in the above list, and planned for 18th Feb, had been cancelled, and would be heard at a later date.

Permit Difficulties
Companies working in the construction sector have called for the bureaucracy surrounding the issuing of permits to be reduced. Leading lights in the industry said granting the licenses currently pending would create far more employment than any of the alternative measures so far unveiled by the authorities.Pimeef, the association for small and medium sized businesses on the island, and the Chamber of Commerce both agreed the injection of extra public funds to carry out a number of municipal projects, announced by the Central Government last month, would only create a minimal amount of new employment. Added to the fact that most of the larger contracts would be won by companies based on the mainland, both groups agreed this was not the best answer to the rising dole queue.Joan Tur Ripoll from the Chamber of Commerce claimed that lowering the length of time it took to get building permission, as well as issuing those currently being processed, would have a far greater effect in reducing the number of unemployed people.

Electricity Consumption
January saw an increased number of people complaining about their electricity bills, as GESA-Endesa, the company responsible for electricity production on the island, changed their invoicing methods. Following new legislation introduced in July 2008 GESA are now obliged to invoice their customers every month. However, this has proved difficult for the company who announced they would be estimating the first bill and reading the meter the second time. The fact that their estimates are normally fairly conservative, added to the fact that December and January were colder than normal months, ensured most received bills which were double or even treble that paid a year ago.The cost of electricity has gone up by 3.2 per cent this year and is now €0.111163 per kilowatt. The average consumption permitted per household has also been reduced from 1,100 kilowatts to 1,000 kilowatts every two months. Consumption over this amount incurs a charge of 0.023 centimes per kilowatt. This charge was introduced to try and make households more responsible, and effectively reduce contamination.
Adequate knowledge of the electricity consumption of certain household items is vital if customers want to lower their bill. Using a standard washing machine three times a week will use a total of 12kw over a 30-day period, whilst similar use of the dryer will add another 36kw to your monthly bill. Electric hobs used for three hours a day will use a total of 162kw per month, while electric radiators are the biggest consumer. Having three radiators on for 12 hours per day will use a total of 1,800kw per month, 1,300kw over the permitted figure.Following the furore a court in Palma ordered the company responsible to reissue the invoices for January. GESA announced they would be giving back the amount overcharged during December to all of their customers. The company earlier confirmed it had charged the new rate in December (+3.5%), when the rate hike should only have affected the January invoices. However, GESA was not yet sure how this would be done, whilst the electricity provider did confirm that the difference paid by each client was minimal and the refund would be centimes. Meanwhile, members of the PSOE party said it was now time for an official explanation about the problem from the president of GESA, Bartomeu Reus.

Funding Finalised
Francesc Antich, the Balearic president, confirmed at the beginning of the week that he had secured the initial financing to buy sa Coma. The president, who visited the site just recently, returned from Madrid with a total of 15 projects which will use €83 million of the €101 million promised by the Central Government.Menorca will receive a total of €7.6 million, whilst Ibiza and Formentera will be awarded €10.9 million. Of this €7.4 million will be spent on the first payment to buy sa Coma, with the total cost being paid over several years.Meanwhile, €1.5 million will be spent on refurbishing la plaza Europa in Formentera, whilst schools on both islands are likely to benefit as Antich announced he would be spending €16.3 million on the purchase of computers to try and bring the level of one computer between 14 pupils down to one computer for every four students.Island president, Xico Tarres, also remained confident it was not too late to get another few projects approved. He said the remodelling of Playa den Bossa, as well as renovation work in San Antonio would be high on his list.

Negative Numbers
The airport figures for 2008 released last week showed a total of 4,629,623 passengers passed through the airport, a fall of 2.3 per cent in comparison to the previous year. However, whilst the Spanish market managed to maintain its 2007 figures, all of the other major markets suffered significant losses. British tourists travelling through the airport fell by 4.8 per cent, whilst falls of 10.7 per cent in the German and of 9.6 per cent in the Italian markets were far more marked.
These four countries make up around 93 per cent of the total number of passengers using the airport, and so a fall of 3.6 per cent between them proved significant in ensuring the negative figures, as most other markets saw a rise in the number of visitors using the airport.The president of the Hotel Federation, Juanjo Riera, pointed out that although the passenger figure had fallen, what was more significant was that the average stay per client had also reduced by half a day. He continued that whilst the average stay at the turn of the century was ten nights, this fell to seven nights in 2008.He also called for all of the Town Halls on the island to freeze municipal taxes, explaining they had experienced huge increases during the good times, and that now was the time to help out hoteliers.Riera continued that most hoteliers were expecting 2009 to be considerably worse than last year, and more hotels than ever would only be open for four or five months.

Lost Hours
The huge number of industrial disputes last year ensured that the Balearics came 5th on a national list of man-hours lost through industrial disputes. A total of 732,944 hours were lost in 2008 through strike action. However, the island was some way off the 3,604,892 hours lost in Madrid, and 3,247,816 in Vizcaya.In total there were 1,019 strikes in Spain during 2008, 19.6 per cent more than in the previous year.

Funeral Costs
Dying is an expensive habit on the island as the latest figures released last week showed a huge rise in funeral costs. The simplest funeral in Ibiza will cost a minimum of €1,500, with packages reaching €6,000-€8,000. The most economic price will include a coffin, hearse and all of the necessary paperwork.
Cremations are an expensive alternative mainly due to the fact that this will involve a trip to Mallorca, due to the lack of facilities on the island. The trip including all the necessary services in Palma will cost a total of €3,300-€4,500, not including the price of the airfare. These elevated costs, plus the fact that space is fast running out on the island, has led many to call for a crematorium to be built on the island, something the Town Hall has promised to do this administration.The average costs on the peninsula for a simple ceremony are close to €2,000, very much in line with Ibiza. The most expensive place is Madrid with the average cost being €2,566, followed by Valencia where the average is €2,466, and Murcia with €2,181.It also makes a huge difference where you are buried on the island, with costs at the cemetery in Santa Eulalia being €1,108, far higher than in either San Antonio with costs of €280, or Ibiza Town where the cost is €146.
Meanwhile, the Town Hall in Ibiza issued a list of names of people set to be moved to a shared municipal grave after the municipal taxes remained unpaid. The list includes a number of non-Spanish names, all of which are listed below. If you are in contact with any of the relations of these people they need to get in contact with the Town Hall within the next three weeks and pay the taxes pending.Those on the list include Emil Ferdinand Franza, Meuriete Jane Margarete, Virginia Carol Zeidel, Inge Hildegard Porada, Peter Michael Weibeu, Roberto Leslie Smith, Peggy Friend Leibler and William M Mair.

Age Concern
Recent statistics have shown that the Balearics has one of the youngest populations in the country. With an average age of just 39.2 years the islands come fourth on the list, with only the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, in addition to the Canary Islands, boasting a lower average age.Experts claimed the stats were due, in part, to the recent surge of immigration to the islands which had helped lower the average, with just 13.69 per cent of the population over 65 years of age.
Ibiza’s numbers are even better, with just 10.8 per cent of islanders over 65 years of age. There is, though, a distinct difference between the average age in rural and urban areas on the island, with 18.3 per cent of the rural population over the age of 65, compared to 10.5 per cent of the urban population.
By municipalities San Juan has the eldest population with 18.3 per cent, followed by 11.6 per cent in San Antonio, 11.3 per cent of the population in Santa Eulalia, 9.9 per cent in San Jose, and just 9.8 per cent in Ibiza Town. Women also far outnumber men, with 10 women for every 7 men over 65 years.However, despite the low percentage there were calls for improvements to services for the elderly in Ibiza and Formentera, which are both stretched at the moment, with the figure only likely to increase over the next few years (by 2017 sixteen per cent of the island’s population will be over 65) the Balearic Government promised to increase their spending on facilities over the next few years.

Don Day
Last Monday the final meeting took place before the final decision is made on the future of the Don Pedro, which sank in 2007. The original decision was expected back in September but was delayed so that future studies could be carried out. However, all of the results are now in and a final decision on the destiny of the ship is expected soon.

Compensation Stalemate
More than half of the landowners expropriated during the building of the Ibiza-San Antonio road, as well as the Ibiza-airport road, have failed to reach an agreement with the Balearic Government over compensation. The ministry for Public Works confirmed on Tuesday that 42 per cent of those affected had agreed to the compensation package on offer, whilst 58 per cent of the cases will now be heard by the expropriation court - specialists in these matters.
The minister for Public Highways, Antonio Armengol, explained that an agreement had been reached with all those who had been willing to negotiate, adding that most of those who had rejected the offer had shown no willingness to negotiate.The Balearic Government dealt with a total of 422 cases last year, in addition to 43 cases which were still pending from the widening of the Ibiza-San Jose road, a project which was completed several years ago. Thus, of this total the Govern reached an agreement with 182 of those affected, whilst 283 cases remain pending.
Meanwhile, some of the owners of part of the land in ses Feixes, which was declassified from urbano to rustico in the last Land Use Plan, have asked the Town Hall to reconsider its decision. Josep Maria Molins, who was representing the various owners of section 12 of the area, explained that all of those affected would have to be compensated for having their land declassified, in accordance with the law. The problem was that the Town Hall has admitted it did not have the money to make these remunerations, a situation Molins branded as ludicrous. He appealed to the Balearic Government for help, stating it was absurd that the Town Hall had been allowed to declassify the land when they knew full well that they would be unable to pay the appropriate compensation.

All Star Cuisine
Following the signing of Rafael Nadal to promote the Balearics as a tourist destination, the Department of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that it had signed up Mallorquin basketball player, Rudy Fernández, to promote its products. The 23-year-old plays for NBA side, Portland Trail Blazers, having originally been a 1st round (24th pick) draft pick by the Phoenix Suns back in 2007.

Handling Dispute
Airport workers working for Acciona voted on Monday to pressure AENA, (the Airport Authority), into not authorising Easyjet the right to carry out their own handling services in Ibiza. The low-cost airline wants to bring its own staff to the island to cover check-in, baggage control and all the other services offered on ground level. Acciona confirmed it had already had its contract rescinded, but workers decided to put pressure on AENA to counteract the move by Easyjet.

Teenage Troubles
According to a worrying new survey by Gadesco, carried out across the Balearics, 29.4 per cent of teenagers admitted to having no friends. The poll of 900 teenagers, which took place at the beginning of February on all four islands, revealed the number one worry for the most remained their exam results (68.3 per cent). However, surprisingly this was followed by 57.9 per cent who claimed their biggest worry was the difficulty in making friends, with 29.4 per cent admitting they had none.

IBIZA TOWN
Tarres Support
The president of the Island Council, Xico Tarres, received a boost in the efforts to clear himself of any wrong-doing in the Eivissa Centre scandal after the judge dropped one of the charges. Following Tarres’ recent court appearance the judge, Jose Espinosa, decided to drop the charge of signing the permission for the Juan XXII building, claiming the president had merely taken the advice of the technical report presented by the municipal experts, and that there was no reason why he should have suspected that more was being built.Tarres expressed his delight at the decision and said it was the first stage to completely clearing his name, and showing that the accusations against his party are merely part of a plot to discredit the PSOE, (Socialist party). However, despite the good news Tarres is not quite out of the woods just yet, and will have to answer further questions about the case in May.

SAN ANTONIO
Sala Fine
A judge in Palma has ordered the Town Hall in San Antonio to pay a fine if the demolition of the Michael Cretu mansion is not carried out by March. The order issued by the court states that the mayor will be liable to pay €1,000 per month from 1st March until 1st July whilst the property remains untouched. After this period the amount will rise to €600 per week. If the money is not paid, the court maintains the right to embargo personal belongings of the mayor, who will be held directly responsible and could face further charges.The decision came in the aftermath of an official complaint to the courts by the environmentalist group, GEN, for what it sees as continual delaying tactics of Sala’s administration.
In response the Town Hall issued a statement claiming the reason the demolition had so far not been carried out was due to the delaying tactics of the owners and the vast amount of red tape which needed to be undertaken before the work could be legally undertaken. It continued that it had originally been given a timescale of 21 months, and that it was just three months over this deadline.

SAN JOSE
Bittersweet Feeling
There was some success for those affected by the new runway to be built at the airport after AENA announced it would be modifying its plans. The original project would have meant eight homes being demolished. This caused outrage amongst local residents, who have received only limited help from the Town Hall. However, their persistence has paid off to some degree, and just four homes will now be affected after the Airport Authorities agreed to make slight changes to the project.Josefa Hurtado, the spokeswoman for the group, said there was very much a bitter-sweet feeling amongst neighbours. Firstly, they were pleased to have saved half of the original demolitions, which included her house, but they are still disappointed that the others are going to be affected. For this reason she said the group would keep up its fight to try and ensure that AENA would change the plan once again, so that all of the properties could be saved.
The businesses in the area were not so lucky and the majority, including Pure Platinum, will have to be demolished in order for the work to take place.

CRIME & INCIDENTS
Jail Term
The man found guilty of the robbery of the Repsol petrol station in Santa Eulalia has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail. Juan Antonio Muñoz Rey stole a motorcycle helmet on the evening of 7th September 2008 which he used to cover his face as he entered the petrol station in C.Sant Jaume, close to the exit road to San Carlos. He threatened staff with a knife before making away with €950. He was arrested the following day when police found him throwing stones at a car close to his home. After questioning he admitted the robbery, and told police where the money was hidden, although he had already spent €200. He claimed he had mixed alcohol with a large number of prescription drugs, ensuring he could remember very little of the incident.

Successful Raids
Months of investigations and stakeouts ended with eight arrests on the island last week, as officers cracked one of the principal heroin rings in sa Penya. The arrests were carried out following the detention of a 40-year-old woman at the capital’s port, after she was arrested with one and a half kilos of heroin in her suitcase.
Before word of her detention could spread officers from the drugs squad had raided a number of properties in the troubled district close to Dalt Vila. Eight arrests were made in total, including four women, and according to police sources, affecting two of the most notorious gangs in the area responsible, according to investigators, for introducing around 2 kilos of heroin to the island each month. The incident came as the drug rehabilitation group, Project Hombre, claimed that the current economic crisis would increase the levels of drug abuse within the Balearics.

Lawyer Delays
The trial of the three Romanians accused of attacking various German tourists back in September has been suspended until the end of March. The main victim, who was left in a coma for three days as a result of the attack, was unable to fly to the island, and so his lawyer managed to suspend the trial to a later date.
The incident occurred on 23rd September 2008 at a popular disco in es Canar. An argument started after one of the Romanians attempted to chat up one of the German victim’s girlfriend. A fight ensued in which the Romanians used the metal poles of some nearby parasols to knock two of the tourists unconscious. A third girl also needed hospital treatment.The public prosecutor has asked for a total of twelve years in prison for the three defendants, who have remained locked up since the attack.

FINANCIAL NEWS
First Month Blues
The first economic figures for January showed little improvement, with most shops confirming that sales had fallen by between 12 per cent and 25 per cent, depending on the sector and location. However, all were in agreement that the mentality of the general public at the moment was to buy the most economic products, and only that which was strictly necessary. Those with more experience in the retail trade agreed this was the worst economic slump they had witnessed in 30 years, and that the worst was still to come.
In contrast most of the major supermarkets on the island reported minimal declines, although all agreed that the sale of supermarket own-brands had increased significantly.
Meanwhile, a survey amongst Pimeef members showed most businesses were not too optimistic about the coming year. In the study of 407 members just 7 per cent predicted this year would be better than 2008. Meanwhile 54 per cent said sales had dropped in 2008 compared to the previous year, with 14 per cent claiming these losses had surpassed 50 per cent.

Government Funding
The Employment Minister, Joana Barcelo, last week signed a deal with the Sa Nostra banking foundation which will help those who have fallen on hard times as a result of the current economic crisis. The deal, which was presented by the Balearic president Francesc Antich, will offer loans of up to €2,400 to those currently out of work and unable to pay their bills, adding that at least 500 people were already eligible for the subsidies.
The scheme follows the Plan Renove loan plan, introduced last month by the Central Government, which put a total of €400 million on offer to those companies in the service industry wishing to renovate their businesses. The loans have interest rates of just 1.5 per cent over a maximum period of 12 years, although the Balearic Government also confirmed two weeks ago that it would be paying half of the interest over the full length of the plan to try and encourage more companies from the four islands to take part in the project.The scheme has so far had great success with sources claiming at least 70 per cent of the funding had already been granted, and that companies in the Balearics had been given €70 million of this total.The subsidies come as the local Government approved tax cuts which it hopes will help out local businesses, and put some life back into the struggling economy.

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