Copyright majorcadailybulletin
At Thursday's council meeting, Palma's councillors are to be presented with a plan that addresses years of perceived neglect of Playa de Palma and close-by parts of Palma. In an unprecedented initiative, twenty-seven entities have come together in creating the Platform for Consensus in Playa de Palma. At the council meeting, representatives of this group will present the dossier and the arguments and complaints that have accumulated over the years and finally resulted in this initiative. The Can Pastilla, Es Pil-larí and Las Maravillas residents associations have been the main driving forces. They have been joined by associations for Sant Jordi and Sa Casa Blanca, the two Palma-wide federations of residents associations, the National Police Union, the CCOO and UGT unions, the Pimem federation for small businesses and the Afedeco retailers association among various others. Sports and senior citizens groups, the Arenal and Can Pastilla yacht clubs, parents associations, taxi drivers, tour guides; the range of entities is wide. Months of work and meetings have gone into preparing the plan, the consequence of what is seen as neglect over many years by public authorities, Palma Town Hall especially. The platform points to all political parties as being responsible for the situation faced by residents, citing negligence and inattention which have led to problems of insecurity, antisocial behaviour, and lack of infrastructure. The population of the area has doubled since the start of the century but has not been matched by the provision of services. They define themselves as apolitical. The citizen is the priority and their starting point is the presentation of the Comprehensive Action Plan for Playa de Palma. They are seeking consensus for this plan, which addresses progressive degradation, especially in those areas away from the beachfront. One particular aim is to avoid having to return to square one every four years when there are elections. They emphasise that a significant portion of the taxes collected by the town hall comes from Playa de Palma.
