MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa bars "strike" closes ten establishments

Two-thirds of the 15 bars and restaurants in and around Pollensa's Plaça Major went ahead and closed yesterday until 4pm in protest at the terrace law. One of the bars which didn't close was that of the Hotel Juma, which belongs to the mayor's family. So, no surprise there then.

MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa restaurants to close in protest this Sunday

A group of bar/restaurant owners with businesses in and by the Plaça Major in Pollensa plan to close this Sunday (until four in the afternoon) in protest at the town hall's insistence on applying a local by-law from 2002 which determines the exact amount of space their terraces can occupy. They also intend staging a protest in front of the Hotel Juma (owned by the mayor's family) as they consider the law benefits this establishment. There is concern regarding discrimination between bars and restaurants (all establishments are officially classified in certain ways), with bars assigned more space than restaurants.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa square reductions to tables

Pollensa town hall is to take measures to limit what is described as over-occupation of the Plaça Major in Pollensa town of bar and restaurant chairs and tables. The number has grown in contravention of a by-law of 2002, which was never truly implemented but now will be. Mayor Cifre says that there have been complaints about the number of tables. The whole issue of terrace seating was given an extra dimension when it was previously suggested that certain establishments in the square would gain under a new terrace law, one being that of the Hotel Juma, which belongs to the mayor's family.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa mayor benefits from new terrace law

So finally, what has been known for a while but not being made public has been, the new ordinance in Pollensa covering the "public way" and terraces is set to benefit, through an extension of terrace area in the Plaça Major, the family business of Mayor Cifre, namely the Hotel Juma. Terraces in the square will become "intensely occupied" whereas terraces elsewhere will benefit hardly at all.

It might be noted that apparently the reason why the mayor did not attend the opening night of the tapas route in Puerto Pollensa was that the meeting he was involved with was one in which this extension was being set out. As someone in the port put it subsequently: "he didn't dare show his face".

See more: Diario de Mallorca