Chestnuts Roasting - Street cleaning and golf

A couple of old local chestnuts are being given a further roasting: one that has been long on the brazier and remains so, the other we all thought had been thoroughly cooked and eaten. They are - the street cleaning of Pollensa and the golf course in Muro. Yep, one more time for both of them. Here we go ...


Pollensa's street cleaning goes hi-tech
Pollensa town hall is to double its investment on street cleaning, bringing the annual spend up to 800,000 euros. For a cash-strapped and indebted town hall this represents a far from insignificant increase. The latest round of tendering for the cleaning gig is in progress, and so presumably there will be a contractor in place before long that does actually have a contract.

In return for this increased spend, the good people of Pollensa can now expect to be asked their opinions as to the levels of service. Dependent upon satisfaction findings, the new contractor will be subject to variable payments. Low satisfaction and they don't get so much. Performance payments in other words. How novel. Moreover, the town hall is to introduce a system of real-time monitoring, via satellite positioning technology, of worker activity and frequency of cleaning. And there I was, mentioning the other day the apparently questionable privacy legal issues with webcams. Someone's going to be watching you, fellas! Now, there's an idea, add a webcam to the satellite monitoring, and everyone can watch the dog mess being swept up. They could integrate the opinion surveys and make those function in real time as well. Vote now for the chap doing the pinewalk - marks out of ten! One could then also watch the amounts being paid - or not - to the contractor, like a Comic Relief running total, but bearing in mind that investments can go down as well as up.


And finally ... finally they're building the golf course in Muro
Work on the golf course in Muro is due to now start in the next couple of weeks. You might be forgiven for having thought that it had already started and that all the final impediments to the course's creation had been overcome. Indeed it had been reported, as long ago as 3 September last year, that work was set to begin during September. The delay seems to have had nothing to do with the endless debates about rare orchids and other environmental matters that had so taxed many, mainly the enviro pressure group GOB, but with the payment of a tax, some 170 grand to the town hall. This money, to be coughed up by the developers, was, we were led to believe, meant to have found its way into the emptying coffers of Muro town hall all those months ago, but has only now been handed over. Which does make one ask why there has been such a delay. There again, the debate regarding the building of the course has gone on for that long that a few months more won't make much of a difference. And no-one will actually be teeing-off in Muro for some time yet. At least two years, possibly longer. Doubtless we can now anticipate beardies prostrating themselves in front of bulldozers in order to protect the orchids. Not that they need to, as the protection of rare flora on the Son Bosc finca is a condition of the development, and the developers have - for the duration of the work - engaged a firm of environmental consultants who will presumably ensure that the environmental conditions are indeed adhered to.


Hiper in administration
On a different tack ... The car-hire sector, the one that has caused and is still causing much heat because of increased rental charges, has received a bit of a shock. Hiper, considered the leading Mallorcan car-rental company, has gone into administration (the meaning, effectively, of "concurso voluntario de acreedores"). Resolution with banks is hoped for - within two weeks - and the company is continuing to operate. One to watch.


QUIZ
Yesterday: Obvious, it was The Association, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJFHLmTz4RI.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.