In The Middle Of Nowhere

“Totally abandoned.” “Closed.” “Gives no service.”

Three descriptions of facets of life in the splendidly weird place that is Son Serra de Marina. I thought to say “weird town”, but can Son Serra be called a town? Indeed what can it be defined as? Perhaps I should start a competition.

The descriptions emanate from a spokesperson for the PSOE opposition in the municipality of Santa Margalida, in which it is Son Serra’s misfortune to find itself. They refer, respectively, to the attitude of the governing regime at the town hall, the library and the municipal office. All of this comes from today’s “Diario”, the main thrust of which is to highlight the lack of local policing in Son Serra.

There are different strands to policing here, one of which is the local service. This is organised via the town halls, and in the case of Santa Margalida it would appear that the police service it is meant to provide to Son Serra has been more or less absent for some eight months. That at least is the view of the opposition and of local residents; the ruling PP denies it.

One resident is quoted as saying that he (or she) has been subject to seven burglaries over ten years. With or without a local plod, you can kind of understand it. Son Serra’s location makes it something of an easy target, as does the fact that there never seems to be anyone there, especially in winter. It is some 7 kilometres from Can Picafort and 13 from Santa Margalida, stuck out on its own along the coast; it is nowhere town, and there are those who assume that it is not part of Santa Margalida at all. But it is, and Santa Margalida is not a rich authority, albeit that it could find the ackers to help fund a new church in Can Picafort but cannot dig into the coffers for effective policing for Son Serra, or effective anything come to that. Out of sight, out of mind is the saying that springs to mind, though the town hall says it is now looking at building a primary school there. According to the town hall, there are 60 or 70 children of infant and primary school age. So there are people living in Son Serra, not that you tend to see much of them.

My guess with Son Serra is that many of the houses and villas there are holiday lets or second homes, some of them owned by Germans who may well have been attracted by lower prices. There has to be some reason for its deadness. Not that an abundance of absentee owners is an excuse for no police. The sense of abandonment in Son Serra is real enough though. It lends the place a charm of strangeness, though whether one would want to actually live with oddness is another matter. Homes may have once been cheaper there, but prices I have seen suggest that they are no longer. But a representative of a leading estate agency here once told me that he (and his company) don’t really bother with Son Serra as it is hard to sell property. The lack of basics make it unappealing, one of those basics being – at present it would appear – a proper police presence.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Miles Davis (composed by Joe Zawinul). Today’s title – by one of the greats of the ‘60s.
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