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The Castell Playa Hotel, now known as the Palladium Hotel, has not resolved the problem of sewerage management. GOB has presented an appeal against the concession of a licence which permits renovating the building and enlarging its tourist occupation.

GOB considers it a historic mistake and a lack of vision for the future that the current legislation allows large hotels built in the 60s and 70s along the coast to be renovated and enlarged. These buildings are more than amortized and have grave structural problems. This is the time to remake them, lower their impact on the landscape and on consumption, and in that way contribute by posing an offer for tourists adapted to current times.

Today, this type of building could no longer be built. Current planning permission does not allow this style of building volume. But, the Balearic Parliament maintains the possibility of restoration that keeps the heights and widths and even increases its tourist occupancy. As a result it is difficult to see where the public interest is considered when decisions like these are taken. Any other businesses have to make adaptations conforming to the passing of the decades.

The hotel obtained a licence in 1973. During the first years there were many problems with sewerage as often testified to the sanitation authorities. In 1980 there was a joint sewer made with other hotels for emptying the sewerage into Calesmorts, to the east of Arenal.

According to the documentation consulted, this sewer concession was exhausted 15 years ago. In processing the current licence for “modernizing” the hotel, the promoter has not been able to prove that the sewer – which can be seen in the public domain – has authorization. The project as presented does not take into account a connection to the new treatment plant built in the area.

GOB has already filed an appeal against the project during the phase when the proposed projects are available for public scrutiny. The appeal it has filed is for a reversal of the legislation for the administrative procedure that says that there will be an annulment of expressed or presumed rights, that are now contrary to the legal system, by those who acquired facilities or rights when they fulfilled the essential requirements for their acquisition.

In this respect, the Town Planning Act establishes that, together with the application, authorizations and reports that were required by legislation prior to the licence being provided must be submitted. In addition, when the act involves the occupation or the utilization of public space, the authorisation or concession of the titular administration must be submitted. None of these requirements seems to have been met.