Every Day Is Like Sunday

For all the talk of hotel renovation work proceeding without licences having been granted - as was the case with the Son Moll hotel in Cala Ratjada where four workers lost their lives when it collapsed - when it comes to the blue-chip hotels, you can be pretty sure that everything's tickety-boo before one brick is laid or one sod of earth is turned by a mechanical digger. Take the Hotel Formentor, for example. For those who may not know, this is the exclusive pile on the Formentor peninsula, one about which much old eulogistic nonsense has been written in the past, a goodly portion of it on the hotel's own website, which now - sadly - appears to no longer exist; at least, I can't find it. But, never fear, because I have a cunning archive system and can give you an insight into the mangled and pompous English that some nutter came up with: “respecting the classical beauty of the Mediterranean landscape that surrounds it, the hotel does not refuse the modern life’s new-technological advances that assure comfort to its guests in every aspect”. There is a background historical aspect to the hotel, which is that it was opened as the Depression kicked in back in 1929. Omens not so good for renovation work now, I'd say.

In internet terms though, the hotel seems now to have been corporatised, finding itself featured on the Barceló site and having even been dubbed the Barceló Formentor. Anyway, the deal is that the hotel needs some renovation work doing, and has done for some while. Because it is so prestigious, or so it is alleged, what would otherwise be a matter of virtually zero interest, has become yet another political rumpus in the wider metropolis that is Pollensa and the fiefdom of Mayor Cerdà. The local politicos and, of course, enviro big-mouths, GOB, are all at it.

The latest is that the central environment ministry is demanding a wider environmental impact study than that which has so far been presented. It claims that there is a lack of information in respect of, for example, the swimming-pools with salt water that form part of the renovation and re-development. So far, so environmentally dull. However, the opposition Partido Popular in Pollensa is blaming the town hall administration not just for the need for a further study and for the greater constraints being imposed by the environmental ministry but also for a discrepancy in the annual municipal budget to the tune of some 600 grand, this being the tax for the re-development construction, an amount that has not been forthcoming because the town hall has not yet granted the licence.

At this point, it all gets rather confusing, and the mayor is attacking the PP over its demagoguery, or something like that. But what is quite interesting is that this case highlights exactly the sorts of issues as to why work goes ahead without licences. Firstly, there is the tax, which, one presumes, is heftier in this instance than would normally be so. Then there is the fact that the central environment ministry (to say nothing of that with responsibility for the coasts) has to have its say. Added to this is the hamstrung nature of the town hall who cannot give the go-ahead to the developers. And on top of that, the opposition and whatever other group has to have its say as well. You do begin to realise that, were it not for by-passing some of the regulations, nothing would get done here. The Formentor hotel is one of the best-known of the island's hotels not just of those in the area. Of course, they want to get it right, but just how long does it take to get things right?


Yesterday was a public holiday of course. It felt, like all public holidays, as though it was a Sunday. A dull, nothing-happening, grey Sunday (though for Spaniards something was happening). It will come as some consolation to those of you in icy Britain to know that yesterday's weather here was the precursor to a particularly cold snap. Snow as low as 100 metres today apparently; and it is cold and very, very wet. This is not as we have known recent Januarys, which have been generally fine. But that just goes to prove, again, that the local weather in winter is not something to be relied on. Winter tourism? Hmm.


Might I just say - thanks ever so much for all the best wishes following my unplanned Christmas entertainment. I'm feeling fine. In fact, I'm feeling better than I have for ages. Your emails have been much appreciated.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Ladytron, "Evil" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmLmiIXPRoY); and for "Destroy", because it is so great, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqGoHouoE0. Today's title - no clue; easy.

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