Ibiza Town

Luxury hotel near cathedral

In March the Spanish Tourism Undersecretary, Joan Mesquida, accompanied by local politicians, laid the cornerstone for the first Parador Hotel on the Balearic Islands. The Parador Ibiza will be moving into the palace, currently under renovation, next door to the cathedral. Plans include 72 rooms as well as a spa. Construction is scheduled to last 30 months and the costs, being covered by the central government, will amount to 11.3 million euros. Paradores are state-run luxury hotels in prime locations.

Ministry of Defence to sell property

Let the bidding begin! The last undeveloped property on Avenida 8 d’Agost is being auctioned off. The current owner is the Spanish Ministry of Defence and they have set the starting price for the 5,137 square metre area, across from the Granhotel Ibiza, at 11.93 million euros. The purchaser will be announced on 24th April. If no solvent interested party is found by then the ministry plans a maximum of two further attempts to sell. The starting price will drop 15 percent on each additional attempt.

San Jose

Not a bit of excellence

Construction efforts over the past few months within the framework of the “Plan de Excelencia” infrastructure project in Cala de Bou are producing far from excellent results. Residents and businesses in the area have pointed out the shoddy workmanship to the authorities on numerous occasions. In early March Maria de los Angeles Mostazo, municipal tourism councillor, assuaged worries by saying, “We will only accept and sign off on the work when everything is perfect.”

Infrastructure or Ses Salines

Residents of the four residential zones within the Ses Salines Natural Reserve will be getting some basic infrastructure. Councillor for Construction, Josep Antoni Prats, announced in March that the majority of the houses built years ago will be connected to the sewer system and that roads will be receiving sidewalks and streetlights, amongst other things. Additionally the overground electricity and telephone cables will be moved underground. Mr. Prats said, “The construction project will be funded to the tune of 16.5 million euros.”

Santa Eulalia

Sewage treatment plant construction to start

The modernisation of the sewage treatment plant in Santa Eulalia appears to have been scheduled for this autumn, according to a spokesperson for the Balearic Islands Ministry of the Environment. A pertinent protocol with central government for the financing of the 7 million euros project has already been signed. “The contract,” said the spokesperson, “took so long because the ministry had prioritised the treatment plant in Platja d’en Bossa.”

Private hospital must prepare new impact report

The Balearic Islands Ministry of the Environment has required investors in a private hospital in Jesus to prepare a new environmental impact report. A ministry spokesperson said in March that the documents submitted by the company Iniciativas Medicas de Ibiza y Formentera S.L. were nowhere near sufficient. For example, the ministry wishes to know what the plans are for traffic connections to the three buildings of the planned health complex near the Ses Feixes wetlands.

San Antonio

Monthly fines for mayor

In the Cretu case Mayor Jose Sala is now being forced to pay directly from his own pocket. According to a decision handed down by the regional court in Palma, Mr. Sala was required to pay a first fine of 1,000 euros in March. He will have to pay further fines until at least July because the judge on the case finds that the municipal authorities are knowingly procrastinating in carrying out the judicial order for demolition of the musician’s estate. If the finca has not been demolished by July, Mr. Sala will be fined 600 euros each week.

Historic lighthouse to be restored

In March the local council decided to award the contract for the restoration of the historic Faro de ses Covetes lighthouse above the harbour to the Refoart S.L. company. A spokesperson for town hall announced construction will start in April and will take a maximum of six months. The costs, expected to run about 400,000 euros, will be paid with funds from the national economic stimulus package. The lighthouse, which commenced operations on 15th September 1897, was taken out of service years ago.

San Juan

Poster contest for the Eve of San Juan

The ‘longest’ night in Sant Joan - midsummer’s eve or ‘Nit de Sant Joan’ - is already making news. The Institut d’Estudis Eivissencs (IEE) has called on residents of the island to participate in the poster competition for the Eve of San Juan. Along with a bit of notoriety the winner will also receive 600 euros. Artists can submit their ideas to the IEE in Eivissa until 26thMay. Participants are free to choose the form, whether photography, painting, graphics or other medium.

Your local authorities in Santa Gertrudis

Residents of Sant Joan can now deal with visits to the authorities at Santa Eulalia’s municipal field office in Santa Gertrudis. The mayors of Sant Joan and Santa Eulalia, Antoni Mari Mari and Vicente Ferrer recently signed the appropriate agreement. A spokesperson for town hall in Sant Joan said, “Necessary fees will be aligned with the rates in Santa Eulalia.” The service will be offered until Sant Joan is able to open its own municipal field office in the area.

San Jose is the capital of the largest municipality on Ibiza, covering the entire south-western corner from Ibiza town all the way round to San Antonio.

Despite this San Jose is little more than a village, surrounding its 15th Century fortress church, perched on the side of the island’s highest mountain. The church took 300 years to build and little other construction appears to have been attempted since, unlike many other parts of the island.

Consequently, the village remains largely unspoilt, as does the mountainous countryside of the entire municipality.

Visitors and civil servants at Sant Josep’s town hall were amazed on the morning of October 6th to see several dozen police and judicial officers storming the building in the village centre. Armed with a search warrant from Ibiza’s local court they confiscated countless numbers of documents and computer hard drives during an action that lasted several hours.

In a parallel action, colleagues from the Balearic Islands prosecutor’s office special corruption unit, who all came to Ibiza especially for the action, also searched the offices of the former municipal architect for Sant Josep, Antonio Huerta Briz on Paseo Joan Carles I. in Ibiza town. It appeared to be the first public action in Operacion Pitiusa.

Along with the leader of the alleged wheeling and dealing around the municipal administration, they also have their sights set on the wife of the former municipal architect, Rosario Chamorra, the son of the two, Antonio Huerta Chamorro and his wife Pilar Fernandez. The list of the putative crimes of the Huerta clan is long.

The prosecutors are accusing Antonio Huerta Briz of the misappropriation of public funds, document forging, accepting bribes, fraud, money laundering and gross violations of building regulations. Rosario Chamorro is being investigated for alleged money laundering offences.

The special corruption unit prosecutors have apparently collected evidence over the past three years that point to Briz having abused his position as municipal architect for private gain. Briz, who under the former PP reign between 1998 and 2007 authorised any and all construction permit applications within the Sant Josep municipality, owns an architectural company and a variety of construction companies.

Antonio Huerta Briz and his wife Rosario Chamorro were arrested at Ibiza’s airport one day after the search of the premises as they returned from holidays. While the court denied the defence lawyers’ request for release on bail for the former municipal architect, his wife and their son and his wife, who were arrested the day before, were all released on bail. The trial will probably not be happening any time soon.

According to statements made by the public prosecutor, Antoni Torres, it will take “…many months before we can analyse the seized documents and hard drives.” The detective work also included access to countless numbers of bank transactions over the past ten years totalling around 12 million euros. Antoni Torres could not rule out the fact that more people might end up in the dock during this corruption investigation. One week after the spectacular search action Torres stated, “What we’ve seen so far is just the beginning.”

In front of the magistrate in Eivissa, Antonio Huerta Briz denied all of the accusations levelled against him. The remaining Huerta clan - who are free after posting bail totalling 360.000 euros - also denied all of the charges raised by the prosecution. However, the evidence gathered against them may prove to be damning over the course of the trial for Antonio Huerta Briz and his family.

Among other things the court has videotape that supposedly shows Huerta abusing his position as municipal architect for private gain. Ironically enough, the tape came from the Balearic Islands Architect’s Association. They hired a private detective to investigate In 2006, as suspicions of the illegal dealings of the Huerta clan grew stronger.

Josep Mari Ribas

At a meeting last night San Jose passed the legislation to ban after hours from 6am to 12 noon. They dismissed arguments by the clubs and although 8 P.P. councillers abstained the laws were passed and fines set to a maximum of 600,000 euros for “serious” offences. The major, Josep Mari Ribas also said that the rules were designed to be the same as neighbouring San Antonio but there could be small adjustments if needed by the council and that it would allow [clubs] to apply for exceptions for certain days. We guess Space for example could apply to open all day for New Years day…

UPDATE 14/01/08: Since that Independent article by a writer in Barcelona erroneously quoted the “ban” times by San Jose council, hundreds of websites and message boards have been quoting it - its not 6am to 10am - its 6am to 12 noon and in reality only affects DC10 & Space - and even then numbers during those times are minimal considering the numbers overall. This is an edict from Madrid, part of the national governments plans for the whole of Spain.

The first meeting of the new Music Council of Ibiza took place yesterday in the Consell. The committee has been formed to promote music and nightlife in Ibiza to the rest of the world. One initial concern is that they have performed a u-turn on the fact that in the Tourism Marketing plan “No public funds should be earmarked for specfic promotiona actvities of this segment [nightclubs]“.

According to the chairman of the council, Xico Tarres, “this is not a contradiction because it is a change and evolution since all things are subject to change.” “We want Eivissa to remain number one of the world in terms of music, which can not continue without being aware of what can happen because we treat it badly.”
(translated)

Tarrés added “that the efforts will be reciprocal, as the clubs could agree to open earlier and later in the season for at least a year “to see if it is possible to lengthen the season.”

Unsurpringly The President of the Federation of Spanish nightclubs Pere Vidal, said he was “very satisfied” after the meeting. However one island musician tried unsuccesfully to attend the meeting and said that “musicians have not had any say over the years and everything indicates that the (council) will be a forum for nightclub owners, who are already rich and now will have a share of the money promoting tourism”.

The council though did state there will be further meetings with bars, promoters and resident musicians.

Maybe they’ve finally realised that all the negative press thats been generated over the course of 2007 has come back to bite them and they need to start sorting out their pr. department…