We Don't Want To Have No Fuss

Our old friends, the United Left and Greens "alternative" (EU/EV) in Pollensa, have been kicking up more fuss. Hot on the heels of their failed motion to overturn the pedestrianisation scheme in Puerto Pollensa, they have now turned their attention to the parking area next to the sports centre. Nothing like a bit of constant agitation to keep the wind up the under-fire mayor.

The parking area, which came into being with an underwhelming fanfare of announcing also some trees and a little play zone for kiddies, is the tarmacked-over old bit of wasteland that used to be able to accommodate more than the numbers that the new area can. It's ok, at least so I thought. Yes, it could have done with there being more parking spaces - they could have left out the play zone for example - but it is better than scraping across dust and stones than once was the case. However, not everything is ok. Apparently when it rains, there is a problem, that of flooding, while, so say the agitators, there is a difficulty in respect of access to the parking, which is, I think, rather overstating the case. They go on to say that there is a danger for kids crossing the road to the sports centre, saying that there had been a plan for a bridge. Again, I think this is overplaying things. The road isn't particularly unsafe, and it has road calmers, so whether this bridge is really necessary is a moot point. The EU/EV imply that this all should be done rather than messing around with the pedestrianisation. Well, if there is an issue with flooding, that's one thing, but the objections they are putting up seem pretty thin. The mayor may deserve criticism for various things, but this all sounds like a vain attempt at picking up on any old thing for the sake of having a dig.


Pollensa town hall is not the only local authority in which there is opposition agitation. In Santa Margalida, there is a bit of storm about the cost of fiestas. Some of you may recall my raising this back on 17 August (Duck Soup), specifically in respect of the Santa Margalida jollies. I asked then what do the fiestas actually cost and queried whether the ever more extravagant fireworks displays could really be justified when other things in the municipality are being overlooked. Well, there is an answer to how much it all costs. This year the town hall spent 512,000 euros, most of it for the Can Picafort August fiesta and La Beata in Santa Margalida itself in September. Now, apparently, they want to add a further 300,000 for next year. On what exactly? Coincidentally, 300,000 is the difference between tenders for a rehabilitation scheme for Son Bauló. The ruling group (Partido Popular and its allies) has gone for the higher priced scheme; the combined opposition say a lower one, which they claim offers more improvements, should be adopted. The opposition says that "a government team in complete crisis" that wants to increase the amount spent on the fiestas "has clearly taken leave of its senses" (quotes in translation from a report in "The Diario"). If the opposition is to be taken at its word, for two aspects of the town hall's responsibilities 600 grands worth of public money more than some might deem necessary is due to be lifted from the municipal piggy-bank.

Now, though I query the spend, what I don't know is if there is a return, by which I mean do they undertake some form of cost-benefit analysis to ascertain whether revenues generated by local businesses come close to or exceed the amount spent? If it were clearly demonstrated that this was the case, then fine, I suppose. There again, I don't know how it could actually be proved. But the fiestas are important to the local businesses. A good example of this was the stink over food sampling at the small Playa de Muro fiesta this summer. The restaurant owners in the playa objected, especially as the restaurants providing the samples were from Muro town, and one was owned by the councillor responsible for fiestas. In Santa Margalida, there is presumably extra trade generated by La Beata; not by tourists, as not many tourists attend, but by people from across the island, given that this is one of the most traditional of the island's fiestas. In Can Picafort, however, it is more debatable. The tourists are already there, and one fancies they go along and have a look at the fireworks and the fire-run and then go back to their all-inclusives. Otherwise, does the Can Pic fiesta drag in a load of additional people from elsewhere on the island and in numbers that might justify the expenditure?

My guess is that they just come up with a figure, spend the money, and that's it. This being the case, one has to start to ask about priorities and precisely the role of local town halls and indeed the people who administer them. As someone instinctively drawn to local democracy and to the closeness of local people to their administrations, I am loathe to bring this into question, but increasingly I am beginning to have my doubts as to the structure of government here - the levels and indeed the sheer number of authorities. It is a theme for another day.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Huey Lewis and the News (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4fdkkBt8VE). Today's title - well, we will get fuss and we have got it, but where does this line famously come from? Musical.

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