I Keep Quiet About It

Get on the main coast road from Puerto Alcúdia, and where does it take you? The clue lies in the name of the road - Carretera Artà. The road runs parallel to the coast line, to the side of the bay of Alcúdia. It takes you into Playa de Muro, Can Picafort and then out into largely forest-bound territory to the coast side as you pass by Son Serra until you end up in Artà. Or maybe you don't end up. Instead, you carry on to Cala Ratjada or down the east coast to the likes of Cala Millor. That the road bears the name of Artà should suggest some importance, a major centre perhaps, but for most it is just a town on the way to somewhere else.

But before you get lost in Artà, struggling to locate the sign for Cala Ratjada, which is conveniently partially hidden and a surprise when you do see it, you might have noticed that large church, the one that rises from and dominates the landscape to your left. You might have thought, well, that looks interesting, but then you would still have kept going.

And that's the problem. People just keep going. Artà. It sounds like it's arterial, and its eponymous main road from Alcúdia pumps you through its centre and out the other end. No-one really goes to Artà, despite its prominence on road signs and the naming of the main coast road in the north. There again, why would you? What does Artà have by way of attraction? It barely registers on the tourist map or in tourist brochures.

Maybe it's coincidental - what I was saying the other day about Campos and towns that have minimal or little by way of real tourism - but Artà is set to be on the receiving end of some seven million euros worth of spend, courtesy of the Spanish tourist promotion body Turespaña. You might ask why they are bothering. I might ask, as one who believes that Mallorca's tourism is wedded to the masses, why do they bother. But you and I would be wrong. Mallorca is full of curios, of old towns that seem barely worth the effort, and of small coastal enclaves that time - mass-tourism time that is - appears to have past by. Because that is the attraction of Artà and its coastal tourism that barely dares to speak its name.

Before you arrive at Artà, there is a road off that is not much more than a lane. It takes you to Colonia Sant Pere and Betlem. Don't expect either of them to be keeping you carousing until dawn. They are end-of-the-road, dead-end, nothing-much-happens Mallorca, peculiar small coastal settlements of no more than spectacular views across the bay and spectacular high rises of hills that dominate them. They are both a part of the coastal plain brooded over by the sudden elevations of the mountain range of Artà. And they want to spend seven million on these places? So they should. Or maybe they shouldn't, as it might disrupt the tranquility of those who have stumbled across Sant Pere and Betlem and would prefer to keep them secret. Or maybe they shouldn't announce the rich antiquity of this part of the island, evidenced by the prehistoric Ses Païsses just outside Artà.

Sometimes, maybe they should just spend the money on keeping places quiet.


A MAYOR UNDER SIEGE - THE STORY CONTINUES
Another week, another tough time for Pollensa's mayor. It's all a load of rubbish. And that is how the organisation for tourism businesses, Acotur, has portrayed the increases in rubbish collection and incineration charges. In some cases (as noted in "The Diario"), these are set to rise by some 300 per cent. These are, of course, tough times too for businesses, and such steep hikes in rubbish tax are the last things they need. Mayor Cerdà argues that the real cost of the tax has not been passed on over the past few years, which will come as small consolation to businesses hit by other rising charges in a downturn.

And pedestrianisation? The mayor has reiterated that he is willing to look at alternative plans for "mobility" in the port, and one such has emerged from a combination of Partido Popular and Unió Mallorquina (UM) members. This has arisen as a consequence of a meeting with the residents associations of both Gotmar and the port. The other day when I spoke to Garry Bonsall, he told me that he was due to be seeing members of the UM who had previously abstained on votes in respect of the pedestrianisation. It would seem that alternative ideas, such as limiting traffic access to, for example, the mornings, are now being tabled. It may also be the case that the road would be open in the off-season. Why shouldn't it be? At present there are enough drivers ignoring the "closure" as it is. What is revealing is that the mayor seems not only to be opposed by other political parties, he doesn't even have the wholehearted support of his own party. To top all this off, a letter from the port's residents association has now been made public. This was a letter sent to the administration in October that makes clear the number of complaints regarding the scheme and that contradicts the view of the town hall that there was not a "majority of unrest" among the port's residents.

If he hasn't already, I fancy that the mayor is due to get a fair amount of egg on his face.

(Since making this entry, I hear that the rubbish tax is to actually go down for tourist businesses. U-turn on rubbish, and now for the pedestrianisation ...)


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Graham Swift, "Waterland". Today's title - from a song by an English female singer who recorded an album with the title of a book by another contemporary British novelist, Ian McEwan.

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