Mean Streets

Ever a town hall to provide a good tale or several, Pollensa is now addressing the curious case of the contractless cleaners - street cleaners, that is, the company that has been doing it, some may suggest otherwise, having been for more than a year minus a contract. Step forward, therefore, the chap in charge of finances and news that the authority is looking at doubling the size of the budget for street cleaning and maintenance. Perhaps this is an admission that not enough has been spent up until now. However much is indeed eventually forthcoming for whichever contractor gets the new gig, it will hopefully be sufficient to mean streets without the doo-doo and a general raising of the street tone - a matter that does exercise the concerns of residents and tourists alike.

There aren't streets as such in the weird enclave of Ses Casetes des Capellans on the outer edges of Playa de Muro by Can Picafort. This peculiar area of small holiday homes has registered blog-wise in the past, for example when a flag of Franco-esque connotation was blowing in the wind above one of the residences. It should have had more coverage: it is one of my favourite oddball areas. Anyway, if you have yet to experience Capellans you may be running out of time as the urbanisation is under threat from disappearing. Not from the ingress of sea, though that couldn't be completely ruled out, albeit it might take a few years, but from the edicts of the law for the coasts, about which we haven't heard a great deal for a while now. At a time when there has been a certain relaxation in respect of hotels and what they can do in terms of redevelopments, contrary - the enviros especially would argue - to the rules regarding the coasts, poor old Capellans seems to have a metaphorical demolition ball hanging over it. Basically, it shouldn't be there, so goes an argument. It shouldn't have been there for 30 or 40 years, or so it would seem. But, never fear, because one view from the town hall is that technically it constitutes "urban land". Capellans may be strange, it may be rather low rent, but these are not reasons to get rid of it. Quite the opposite; they should slap a heritage site protection order on it. Culture comes in many different forms, and the odd is often the most interesting.

And coming back to the curious case of the contractless cleaners, it sounds a bit like an Agatha Christie, about which one might ask, whatever happened to the old dame becoming the face of Pollensa. Did they find out it might cost a few bob or centimos more than they'd bargained for in terms of image rights, or did someone say that actually it wasn't much of an idea?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Handsome Family, "Hunter Green" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW5e_1jxw2U). Today's title - and who were the main two stars in this?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)