Views: 277
Failure to pay attention to orders for stopping unlicensed works can be very costly. Some urbanising activities on rustic land in Mahón have cost 614,000 euros in fines and a potential crime for disobedience for having twice breached the orders given by the inspectors. Continue reading 600,000 euros for not stopping illegal works
Views: 279
The projection of 490 villas on the Sant Lluis coast has had an official complaint made by GOB as a result of finding many important deficiencies in the forward planning.
The official plans for plots in Binisafuller and Cap d’en Font, with a projection of nearly five hundred villas, of which nearly half are already built, implies a projected population of 1,470 inhabitants, that must be supplied with drinking water and must have the management of sewage. Continue reading The provision for 490 chalets, in distress
Views: 187
This Saturday in Es Castell, GOB will take part in a show given by Organisations of Menorca. It will be a festive morning in which representations of the Island’s organisations will have workshops and activities related to their purposes. The aim, through fun, is to highlight the importance of the work of the association fabric of the island and to invite everyone to join in.
The exhibition is organised by the Forum of the Third Sector Associations of Menorca (Fòrum ETS Menorca) currently formed by 49 associations from very different fields, which, between them, channel the needs and concerns of Menorcan society. There will be 22 represented in Es Castell, each one having prepared an activity: workshops, activities, games, visits, discovery tours… Continue reading GOB will take part in the Show by Organisations
Views: 268
For months now, we have seen in the press, repeated articles on desalination plants. They are always presented as giving water to the population, but the information hides some points that should be kept in mind.
Desalination is much more expensive
Since the work on the desalination plant for Ciutadella was delivered, the Balearic Government promised to pay the equivalent of 8,000 euros per day for the 15 years of construction. More than 43 million euros. This is being paid by the citizens although blurred by other costs. Continue reading Desalination plants: the excuse for suicidal growth
Views: 493
The Ciutadella Town Hall plans to increase the current extractions from the aquifer (which is nearly completely saline) by 30% and use the desalination plant 100% by 2031. GOB has submitted formal complaints about the so-called Sustainable Management Plan of water and the drought emergency, because it considers the plan to be unrealistic. Continue reading Ciutadella, water chaos that could be made worse
Views: 300
Hundreds of people visited the exhibition, “Son Bou Act”, acquired works of art and gave donations. This meant that, within five days, the necessary funds were raised to defray the costs of the legal proceedings initiated by GOB. The entity asks that public institutions will also work to avoid the enlargement of the two enormous hotels on the beach.
The hotels of Son Bou have made one of the worst impacts to the landscape of the Menorcan coastline. They were constructed in the seventies, then, in 2017, a project was submitted by the promotion company that plans to keep the height of the 12 floors of the two towers and add a five-story construction next to and between them. This will have the effect of a huge screen.
GOB found that the hotels never complied with the plot surface requirement for a licence in the seventies, thus making the buildings illegal and not able to benefit from the Provision of the Tourism law that could allow an extension. For that reason, the process has been stopped during the last six years.
In 2022, the company submitted a petition to separate and regroup the plots of land with the intention of adding more square meters as building land and so legalising the current constructions. However, GOB considers that they have taken green areas to count as building land. This is the reason for having started the contentious administrative process, since the Alaior Town Hall has rejected, through its administrative silence, reviewing this operation.
GOB considers that it is unwelcome these days trying to enlarge yet more such enormous buildings as the hotels in Son Bou on the front line of the sea.
The entity regrets that the public institutions are not working to reduce significantly the effect of the hotels on the landscape but rather apply silence and opacity to a project that aims to increase the impact greatly on the landscape of the largest beach of Menorca. This attitude needs to change.
At the same time, we would like to give our sincere thanks for the help given by more than 50 artists who donated works; to those who helped carry out the activities complementary to the exhibition (of theatre, poetry recital and the “glossat” – improvised poetry performance) and to all those who responded to the call ensuring that legal costs are not an impediment for defending the island.
Views: 299
The presence of sewage water along the coast of Sant Lluis led to finding a fixed installation for a discharge into the public domain. GOB documented the case and made a formal complaint to Costas and the Department of the Environment.
Cap d’en Font has a series of large chalets with enormous lawns in their gardens. For that reason, the area was chosen by GOB to show the large consumption of water taken for gardening, as part of the framework for their excursions made last year in their campaign Menorca In-SOS-tenible.
Some of the people on this excursion saw, in an open area close to one of the large chalets, an area covered by shrubs and weeds, filled with sewage water and told GOB. An inspection led to finding a pipe hidden in the vegetation, from where the discharge came.
Comments from the neighbours suggested that they had noticed, on other occasions, rocks with coloured waters and suspicious smells. It pointed to a habitual practice of the emptying of a septic tank belonging to a chalet, which, they also said, had a lot of summer tourist activity despite not having a tourist rental permit.
Cap d’en Font is one of the urbanizations that does not have a sewage system. The owner of each establishment is responsible for contracting someone to empty their septic tank when it is full.
GOB estimates that the garden attached to the discovered “facility” must use about 1000 litres of water daily just for maintaining the lawn in the summer. This is 90,000 litres, minimum, during the tourist season.
For that reason alone, these chalets should be, already, the object of systematic inspections. This is particularly so since there is a means for discharging sewage water into a public domain, including an area where people swim, which aggravates the situation even more.
A formal complaint has been registered with the Balearic Government Ministry of Sea (that assumed the responsibility of coastal surveillance since July) and with the Environmental Agencies.
Views: 241
A large group of artists are donating works to benefit the legal proceedings filed by GOB against the intention of enlarging the Son Bou hotels. The opening will be on Monday 28 August at 19.30. Different events have been organised for the following days as part of the Son Bou Act exhibition.
Numerous paintings, drawings and photographs can be bought at the GOB premises in Maó, in the Molí del Rei, that have been donated to help defray the legal costs required for the case brought against the increase in volume of the two large hotels that are on the front line of Son Bou.
GOB has spent six years fighting to have the project presented by Melia reconsidered, which aims to build five more floors between the two existing towers. On the understanding that the existing buildings have legal deficiencies and that the regrouping of the plots made by the Alaior Town Council, making green areas for building, a judicial route is being taken that is being paid for with contributions made by the public.
This is when the solidarity of a series of artists appeared, who believed it necessary to contribute to this public mobilization that favours complying with urban regulations drafted for obtaining equilibrium and respect for our land. Their willingness to help has been followed by a number of other participants who are giving works for the benefit exhibition.
At the same time, artistic events are being added to the initiative. All the activities will take place in the Molí del Rei, Camí des Castell, 53, Maó, at 19.30. Here is the programme to note in your diary:
Spread the word, help by distributing the attached poster in pdf and bring your friends.
Son Bou poster https://www.gobmenorca.com/sites/default/files/son_bou_act_cartell_expo_2023_.pdf
Views: 198
GOB organised a clean up of the coast along s’Estany de Mongofra that took place on Sunday 23 July. The topography and the enclosed coves of this unique area make it particularly prone to the accumulation of waste brought in by the sea.
The fifty volunteers that came to help were distributed to various points already identified around s’Estany. In total, they collected 83 kilos of waste, mostly plastics. The presence of microplastics in the area, with muddy or pebble beaches, made them difficult to collect, so that they could only be collected manually picking up each one by one.
It was a day of intense heat so that the mid-morning snacks, with Land Stewardship Scheme farm products, above all the melons and watermelons, helped rehydration and to give strength to continue with the task.
At the end of the day, the different types of waste were separated. This time, the remains of broken plastics made up the main part of the waste, weighing 29 kg, followed by bulky plastic waste, 23 kg, and in third place were the ropes weighing 17 kg. What is surprising is the large number of stoppers that can be found, on this occasion 3.5 kilograms that took up a volume of 30 litres.
Since 2015, GOB has organised various clean up days at the same point and something interesting has been observed that, with the passing of time, the smallest plastics (microplastics, mesoplastics and others) have been replacing the larger objects that used to represent the most common waste. These small waste objects are nothing more than the result of plastic degradation, which, as we all know, is not biodegradable so that it breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces that end up in the trophic chain and become ingested by humans.
We are grateful to all the volunteers that took part on this day and we encourage everyone to take advantage of their beach days and collect the plastic waste they are sure to find in the sand.
This event was supported by the Island Governing Council and the Menorca Preservation Fund.
For photographs, please look here
Views: 417
It is now known that the developers of certain illegal swimming pools in Menorca are also having a major conflict in France, in the Provence Region, where the city council is preparing a closure order of an establishment in the chain.
The same developers that are managing Sant Ponça and Torre Vella in Menorca (under the Group name, Domaine de Fontenille) have opened recently a new luxury hotel in Sain-Remy-de-Provence that is generating a lot of controversy in the area, which is being spread via major media outlets.
In agricultural areas of this region, it is only possible to process tourist accommodations, called guesthouses, of five bedrooms. The problem is that the hotel in question would have been inaugurated with 19 bedrooms and a restaurant without a licence or municipal authorisation. The different administrations have made negative reports that will probably result with a closure order. In fact, some major booking platforms no longer operate with the hotel.
The new establishment, called Domaine de Chalamon, is located in an area that, like Menorca, opted for strict urban planning, in order to avoid unwanted development. The authorities do not want to allow precedents that would encourage future disastrous planning.
The authorities have shown greater courage than in Menorca
Seeing the publicity that announced the details of the building (19 bedrooms, swimming pool, restaurant…) did not coincide with the characteristics of a guesthouse, the different administrations coordinated and visited the establishment and issued negative reports. A closure order seems imminent if it has not already occurred.
It should be remembered that in 2019 GOB denounced the presence of swimming pools that should be troughs for saving water in the agro tourism of Torre Vella as well as other irregularities. As a result, in 2021 the Consortium of Urban Discipline opened a file with the proposal of a sanction for about one and half million euros (486,000 for each one of those responsible – the developer, the architect and the builder.)
A little while afterwards, the Environmental Commission also raised reports of environmental breaches and proceedings have been initiated with the Island Governing Council, as the body that must enforce environmental issues.
The developers allocated all the existing buildings for tourist use and then asked to build new ones to maintain the farming activity, then petitioned for legalising water troughs made into swimming pools. The Alaior Town Council did not allow GOB to see the documentation and this obstruction has been reported to the Council for Transparency and Good Governance that is processing the file.
A case that creates comparative grievance between the Menorcans
Torre Vella continues, in the summer of 2023, promoting the bedrooms with the illegal swimming pools. It seems that no administration decides anything and meanwhile, the promoters do business when their facilities are illegal.
To allow this impunity transmits an inequality in the application of the rules (many illegal works on the Island have ended in demolition as established by law) and generates a sensation of favourable treatment by the Menorcan authorities.
What a difference from the reaction of the French authorities. There, despite the French millionaires mentioned putting forward their usual arguments of giving jobs and restoring the archaeological heritage, the public institutions have replied that the rules are equal for all as was known by the developers from the first day that they were interviewed.
Look at the following images:
