Ventura Fairway: Binissalem and golf

The arguments surrounding the development of more golf courses on Mallorca are never far away from the shouts of "fore" as the business of golf hurtles towards environmentalists lurking in the rough who are forced to dash for cover and bury their heads in a sand bunker.

Four years ago, I wrote an article the title of which was "Heart and Soul". It was mainly to do with the projected golf course in Campos. Without going into the detail of that article, I concluded by saying that "the Campos case is important as it goes to the heart of many issues, namely what sort of developments are needed, the intransigence of a non-pragmatic environmental lobby, the incoherence of political decision-making and the needs of local communities. It is a story not just about a golf course but also about the future soul of Mallorca."

Nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. Golfing factionalism is as it was and political decision-making remains incoherent as well as being subject to whim, revisionism and dominant political party complexion. The future soul of Mallorca is still undecided, but we are edging more towards a state in which the treasure island becomes Leisure Island.

The Campos project has always made some sense. The town has little by way of tourism, so in purely economic terms the project has advantages, the same advantages that would accrue from the highly contentious hotel development near Es Trenc beach. Another disputed development, in Muro, has always made less sense, if only because of the existence of other courses nearby, Alcanada and Pollensa.

These two projects have dominated the arguments regarding further golfing development, but there is now a third, and one that threatens to become as mired in  the endless to-ing and fro-ing that Muro's has. It is the strange case of the Binissalem golf course, a case made stranger because the golf course would lie less in Binissalem than it would in neighbouring Sencelles.

In May 2010, the Council of Mallorca supported a proposal by Binissalem town hall to modify local planning regulations in order to stop the construction of a golf course on rustic land. The town hall, buoyed by the Council's support, revelled in being able to say that it was the first town in Mallorca to have modified planning regulations in order to expressly forbid golf development on rustic land. Meanwhile, Sencelles town hall had already imposed a moratorium of a year on any construction and in April 2011, it followed Binissalem's lead in prohibiting the construction.

The course seemed dead in the water, therefore. Until, that is, the Council of Mallorca, now under a different political regime (the Partido Popular), opened the way for the course to once more be developed. This was in January this year. And now, all of a sudden, Binissalem town hall has performed a complete U-turn and approved the development of sporting activities on rustic land, meaning the golf course. Sencelles would presumably have to follow suit, and it is here where the story becomes that bit more interesting as the promoter of the golf course is one Ventura Rubí. And he is? The president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles.

The political make-up of both town halls has changed since the prohibitions of 2010 and 2011, as also has that of the Council of Mallorca. So, here you have it: whim, dominant political party complexion and also some revisionism; the decision to prohibit construction had all been a mistake. Presumably, therefore, no one had actually meant to prohibit construction.

Further background to all this is the new tourism law and the provision for more agrotourism whereby existing properties on rustic land can be converted to tourist use (and Binissalem town hall has also agreed that there should be more agrotourism). Just by way of interest, who is the honorary president of the agrotourism association? Ventura Rubí.

Putting agrotourism together with a golf course and the fact that Binissalem and Sencelles are at the centre of Mallorca's wine industry, then the town hall's U-turn makes sense. It would open the area up to an upmarket brand of tourism that would benefit from the synergy of golf and wine.

But go back to 2008 and there were arguments that Mallorca had already reached golfing saturation point in terms of courses while these courses were being under-utilised. Golfing tourism has tended to grow but not hugely, while agrotourism has suffered from a fall in demand from its key mainland Spanish market. The Binissalem course makes some sense, but so does the one in Campos; more so perhaps. However, the question is less whether Binissalem's course makes sense and more whether any more courses on Mallorca make sense.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.