Save Puerto Pollensa Protest

[pollensa]

There's an interesting article today in Andrew Ede's blog - alcudiapollensa: Fix You? Puerto Pollensa and protest based on an email I passed on to him. I'm afraid it is only in Spanish but I got the gist of it.

The local small businesses are protesting against the state of the port:

dirty streets, bad lighting, parking, lack of public toilets etc. and general lack of 'loveliness' and are organising a demostration on

Wednesday 2nd June at 10am from the Petrol Station​

Their objective is to make the mayor of Pollensa & the Town Hall aware of their complaints & apparently he/she (?) is in the port on Wednesdays.

The emails have been sent to us so I'm sure they would like support if anyone can attend.

But do read the article linked to above as Andrew does wonder whether this may be counter-productive and make tourists even more aware of the issues.

 

[Sparky]

Quite right Pollensa, there is a page in "The Advertiser" about this. I am waiting for an e-mail from a friend and was going to try to copy it onto the forum when i recieve it.
The page i have read isn't very well worded but there is a 5 page manifest which i am hoping will be more explicit. Will report back when i get the e-mail.

 

[frito]

Protest

There is also a petition which has just started circulation which is bringing to the notice of the Pollensa Council concerns about the state of the Port.

Frito

 

[Nick]

Fantastic.....

Just added an article re this to the one about the beach beds.

PP IS looking tired at the moment. More grafitti (my real big pet hate) even on the church for goodness sake and some on the cobbles in the centre of the square. Why do the council not do anything about it ??

Street lights on the front damaged and worn. More dog mess than ever. More litter about. Front line buildings that need a lick of paint. I can see why businesses are up in arms.

Times are hard so PP needs to keep its image.

Even more so when you see the modern extras in Alcudia which is my mind is nowhere near as nice and classy as PP.

Even so, I still had a great time there and that is the reason why I've invested in property in PP.

 

[susiejb]

An interesting article that could be repeated many times here in the UK I am sure.

I can only relate it to where I live here in Newquay.....in spite of having the finest of beaches and a beautiful coastline we have hit the main news so many times regarding the alcohol problem with the youngsters.
However, the local people have a united front on this and have made a lot of protests, so much so that this year we have been promised some changes.
We shall see what effect they have ...the problem is if you sit back and say nothing....the councils most definitely wont take notice.

Yes it can be counter productive.....but much as we love PP, tourists in general will not tolerate dirty streets etc.etc.forever. They will soon start to look elsewhere.

 

[pollensa]

Quite right Pollensa, there is a page in "The Advertiser" about this. I am waiting for an e-mail from a friend and was going to try to copy it onto the forum when i recieve it.
The page i have read isn't very well worded but there is a 5 page manifest which i am hoping will be more explicit. Will report back when i get the e-mail.

I managed to extract this from the Advertiser (somehow a load of Spanish appeared!):

RESUMEN
Port Pollença es una localidad preciosa que ofrece mar, montaña, cultura, hermosas vistas, etc... Un destino turístico anhelado que ofrece muchos puestos de trabajo.
Pasear entre basura un Sábado por la mañana ¿Recogida de basura???
El turista se pregunta: ¿dónde me tumbo?
Queremos conseguir que nuestro municipio vuelva a ser el destino turístico anhelado por cualquier turista. Nos hemos reunido en el día de hoy para poner de manifiesto nuestro descontento con la falta de diligencia del Ayuntamiento en lo que afecta a aspectos fundamentales y básicos para una localidad.
¿Cuántas has pisado tú?

Miércoles 2 de junio a las 10:00 en la gasolinera de Port Pollença

MANIFESTACIÓN : (Demonstration)

Wednesday 2nd June at 10am start from the Petrol Station
Puerto Pollensa is a beautiful town that offers sea, mountains, culture, beautiful views etc. .... A tourist destination that is desired.
Unfortunately there are many problems and here are just a few...

Many apartments and houses have been constructed instead of hotels or residential areas of high social status.
No road access to the front of the beach, tourists can not access the beach.
Totally neglected beach
Cleaning deficiencies
Rubbish collections are not as they should be
Times for collection of wastes for recycling recycled
Lack of appropriate road signs
Gardening service insufficient
Insufficient policing
Not enough public toilets
Car parking at la gola not open yet...etc, etc
We want to keep our municipality to be a desirable destinations for any tourist
(a full 5 PAGE manifest is available)

LET’S SAVE TOGETHER “EU MOLL”​

 

[Sparky]

Yes that is what i have in front of me, i agree with most of it but take issue with a few points. For example " Totally neglected beach", i think that has now been resolved it doesn't look anything like the photo they have printed.
Then there is the "Insufficient policing", as i posted on another thread there are more patrols by both local police and Guardia in a bid to address the increase in thefts and break-ins.
While i agree totally that the recycling bins are not emptied nearly enough, the green, general rubbish bins are emptied every day as are the litter bins.
The pavements are swept every day but agree they could do with being power washed and as for dog mess, well, it gets worse in the summer because there are more dogs roaming the streets and i think that is because the owners are at work and the animals are shut out all day.

 

[eleanor]

It is the few irresponsible dog owners who allow the dog mess to become an issue. As has been said before, if they were fined as happens here for not clearing up then they may think about it. Also it needs to become socially unacceptable. As for dogs being out all day - that is not good! Again here in England this doesn't happen so much as the dogs would be collected and owners would be in trouble. Perhaps a few rules need to be made in PP regarding dogs generally. Also to have dogs roaming around is not good in an area whereby tourism is promoted. They will go on the beach and other public places which could also cause danger to people especially children if the dogs are not people friendly or untrained.

 

[Sparky]

Of course it's not acceptable and i am not condoning it, unfortunately the Spanish attitude towards animals is completely different the the British way.
Having said that not all areas of Britain are fortunate enough to have dog mess free streets, i know they are not where i used to live. It is impossible to be watching every dog and every street 24/7.

 

[Nick]

The Spanish may well have that unhealthy attitude in regards to their dogs and of course we have a problem over here.

The point is that if the residents of PP want their town to prosper, and I'm sure the bulk of their income is through tourism, then they have a responsibilty to alleviate the problem. Along with acts of criminal damage and grafitti.

I walked the lovely new wetland habitat area last week and the council have done such a great job in the pathways, fencing, benches, lights etc. and already they have been damaged and sprayed with grafitti.

If the town loses its beauty, and I for one hope it doesn't as I have invested there, then it will deteriorate rapidly.

 

[Tonsyl]

Petition & Protest re the state of the Port

I seem to recall posting several times over the past couple of years on the subject of what I and others thought was the decline of the Port in one way or another.
Certainly dog mess featured as did the number of cheap and tatty shops and supermarkets that have sprung up all over the place. There have been postings about "goings on in the square" and the general laid back attitude of the Town Hall in respect of a number of issues and so, I do not think the subject of the protests will take any notice at the moment, the coffers are bare. As the guy in Whitehall said in the Treasury, "sorry the money's all gone".
In order to clean up the mess, clear the rubbish and police the streets, money is needed and if the council haven't any, maybe the big businesses from "out of town" that run many of the outlets might put their hands in their pockets and invest in the infrastructure and protect their own investments.

 

[Sparky]

The council have been spending a lot of money in Pollensa town over the last few years and PP has been left out on a limb. As you say there is now nothing left in the coffers so i will be amazed if anything gets done about the problems.
What is really crazy is that there is a lovely new car park by the new La Gola wetland area but for some reason it has not been opened.

 

[pips]

How much money was spent on the walk cycle path going to Pollensa? Do many people use it? Also these problems are not new but I suppose they have come to the fore due to economics and worries about lack of tourists and the fear they will not return if the Port looks neglected and unloved,but as prviously said the coffers are empty, a bit late to be protesting now.

 

[Smiddy]

If the coffers are empty then they must start making more of the empolyee's they've got. The dog dirt is probably the number one complaint, no additional funding required to allieviate the problem, well apart from these pick-up lances were the cleaners pick it up and place it in suitable bags or bins, no need to handle it, no risk to health. If the present cleaners object to doing this then get some who don't. Not rocket science, it's how it's dealt with in the UK. Are they listening to us?

 

[Nick]

Good point re the dog mess problem Smiddy. Easily remedied. As is cleaning or over painting grafitti. They are very cheap and quick to do.

Painting the lamposts on the promenade and replacing the odd missing light cover are also cheap and quick to do.

I bet myself and half a dozen volunteers could turn the main visited areas around in a weekend !!

Shame the council does not read this..................we want tourists to return. If you stay in a bad hotel you do not return so the same could apply to a bad resort ??

 

[lollipop]

I have to say that I have just walked along the front and although I can't comment on lighting I do think the pavements looked very clean,the tractor had obviously been across the beach and the beach changing, showers and toilets are in place. Didn't test so can't say if connected yet and I am not blinkered.

 

[bluestar]

Something else I thought was really bad was ... last week while visiting popped into a shop selling sweets amogst other things and found awful porographic videos at a pretty low level on full view for all to see ushered mt 2 children out asap and wont be going back there!!

 

[Sparky]

bluestar, where was this shop exactly. And no ..........before anyone says anything, i am not going to buy any ... if you tell us where it is maybe someone can go and have a word with the owner .

 

[bluestar]

Im not very good with streets but it was around the corner from the kiosk that sells hot dogs on the way to the back of the hotels that face the Pine Walk- it did sell alchohol so perhaps it was more of an adult shop! but there was another family in too and it was selling childrens rock style lollys and big bags of fruit sweets that my 11 year old wanted to take back for his friends at school

 

[Sparky]

Sounds like "Dover", i will call in next time i am around that way.