Daily Bulletin points of interest.

[eleanor]

This sounds a little scary Bella. My husband once said when we were thinking of buying land to build a villa up in the hills, that it is dangerous to move as many trees as were being moved. Having been there for years and years the removal can only cause problems in the future with land movement.
I also think of those mountain roads especially around Soller - Some seem so dodgy with slides evident in some places. Bit of a worry really.

[Belladonna]

I think he is right eleanor - sorry about that! It did seem right from the start that it was wrong to try and destroy or alter the landscape of a mountain that had existed for hundreds or thousands of years in the same state of being with nothing being built on it. Progess again.

[Belladonna]

A couple of things caught my eye today in the D.B..

Regarding the electricity. This seems like a very good idea and hopefully we will soon be able to have the kettle going whilst using the hairdrier with the lights on and the heating at the same time!! But a niggle keeps pushing its way up saying "How long is it going to take to put the cable in, and how many power cuts will the island suffer whilst it is all being sorted out?"
You cant make an omelette without breaking eggs!!

Quote
Power to be “cabled” from the mainland
STAFF REPORTER
A national electricity network, Red Electrica Española, is to begin work at the start of next year on laying a power supply cable between the mainland and Majorca.
Speaking yesterday in Palma, Luis Atienza, the President of Red Electrica Española said that at a cost of 375 million euros, the Balearics will be equipped with volumes of electricity equivalent to those produced by a central generating station, boosting current capacity by 20 percent.

The cable, he said, will also result in the power supply in the Balearics being more reliable and in the pricing of electricity in the region being more competitive.

According to the company, the cable needs to be laid by the only two boats in the world which are capable of the task, the Skagerrak and the Giulio Verne.

Unquote

Second report that confused me just a little bit. Does this mean that tour operators promised to pay the island a certain amount to the hotels they have rooms in, then because they decided to give discounts they took the discount from what they had promised to pay Majorca??!!! How on earth did they think they were going to get away with it? If they give discounts - all well and good - but take it from their own profits, not what they have promised to pay. Disgraceful.


Quote

Hoteliers battle Thomas Cook
STAFF REPORTER
MAJORCAN hoteliers are joining the tourist industry throughout Spain in denouncing British tour operator Thomas Cook for illegally applying a 5 percent discount to its invoices to clients in August and September this year.
The announcement was made yesterday by the Majorcan Hotel Federation (FEHM) after a meeting in Palma of some 50 Majorcan tourist companies and associations that have been affected by the move. “We are determined to use every legal means at our disposal to reclaim this money from the tour operator,” a spokesman said. Attendees at the meeting said that it was important to involve the Balearic government in their struggle to retain the money which they perceive as being lawfully theirs, otherwise it will set a “dangerous precedent” in the tourist industry. “This action has never before been taken by a tour operator,” the spokesman continued. FEHMis forming a united front with other hotel federations around the country including those in Benidorm, Costa del Sol, and the Canary Islands.

Thomas Cook offered Spain an olive branch this week by giving the Spanish Minister for Tourism, Joan Mesquida, assurances that it will increase its operations and capacity in Spain next year but that does not appear to have persuaded hoteliers from taking legal action which could land Thomas Cook before the European Commission.

Unquote

[andrew711]

Bella, the word "discount" is a bit misleading. It is a 5% deduction from invoices for payments by Thomas Cook to hotels for August and September. The measure, says Thomas Cook, was to compensate it for losses caused earlier by the ash cloud. It has been adopted by the UK wing of Thomas Cook but not by the German division, and applies worldwide.
Legal action being contemplated is for alleged breach of contract and abuse of market position.

[Belladonna]

Ah, so its another legal battle which run and run then. Thanks for making just a little clearer Andrew!

[Sparky]

Andrew thanks for clarifying. Whilst the DB is a good source of info, sometimes, i think because it's parent publisher is the "Ultima Hora", things tend to get lost in translation.
In my opinion, as i have said before, the ash cloud was nobodies fault, but the insurance companies are the one's who should be paying up, for TC to penalise the already struggling hoteliers is totally wrong and i hope the law makes the right and fair decision.

[Belladonna]

Looks like another "improvement" has gone by the wayside partly due to financial problems;

Quote;

Pollensa council withdraws plans to pedestrianise seafront
STAFF REPORTER
THE town council in Pollensa has decided to withdraw the contract it had awarded for planning the pedestrianisation of the seafront, independent political party “Altnerativa” confirmed yesterday, apparently because technicians had found the project to contain too many “flaws and inconsistencies.” Paperwork is now in progress to withdraw the commission from the company which had mapped out plans to eliminate traffic from the seafront, and the Council has anulled the payment of almost 19'000 euros which was to be made to the firm’s owner, a relative of a group which had lobbied for the pedestrianisation programme. “Alternativa” spokesman Pepe Garcia said:“For months, different council factions, tourist business and residents’ associations were finding fault with the blueprint of what had been termed “a sustainable transport” programme. The payment couldn’t have been made anyway because there were insufficient municipal funds,” Alternativa claimed.
Garcia said that two opportunities to secure financing had been wasted as a result of the Council’s incompetence in settling the seafront issue.
Technicians who had looked at the company’s plans said that they were “too vague” and that designers had made assumptions based on “out-of-date” material.

The technicians said that there was also no evidence that were the pedestrianisation programme to have gone ahead, that the traffic and tourist business problems of Pollensa were going to be solved as a result.

Unquote.

Obviously there are problems with spending the money in the first place if it is not thought to be able to generate any extra income.
Its a vicious circle.

[lollipop]

Some work has started on replacing broken slabs on the seafront ,marina end. Hopefully they will continue along the whole front which will make things look better.

[Belladonna]

Good news for the island! The last sentence about the longest season for a few years has got to put a smile on the faces of all businesses!


FLIGHT SEARCHES TO MAJORCA TO SOAR ON “BLUE MONDAY”
By Humphrey Carter

PALMA
WE all hate Mondays, including Sir Bob Geldof who has spent his summer holidays in Majorca for well over a decade, and UK travel industry experts are predicting that January 24, dubbed the most depressing day of 2011 is going to witness a surge in searches for sunshine holiday flights to top destinations including Majorca.

We are all familiar with the Monday morning blues but Monday 24 January 2011 is tipped to be the most depressing day of 2011, Blue Monday, according to WhichBudget.com thanks to the distant memory of Christmas and the dreary weather combined in Britain with broken New Year’s Resolutions and enormous credit card bills.

Whilst many people will spend Blue Monday under the duvet after calling in “sick”, WhichBudget.com, a leading flight search engine and destination finder, expects many people to spend the day looking for an escape resulting in a significant increase in the number of searches for flights on 24 January.

Recent consumer research by WhichBudget.com has found that the most popular time for travellers looking for cheap flights is on Mondays between 11am and 12pm, with almost 10% of all searches taking place during this time.


SEARCHING WHILE AT WORK
Martino Matijevic, CEO and Founder at WhichBudget.com comments: “WhichBudget data shows that people search for flights during the day while they are at work and the hour just before lunch is the busiest time. “The majority of people tend to be more productive in the mornings clearing their inboxes and preparing for the day ahead, and when these tasks are finished there is a natural lull in productivity. “Our figures show that people are using this break to use the internet and search for flights. Mondays are particularly busy because most people experience that ‘back-to-school’ feeling and searching and booking a flight to visit friends and family, experience a new city or simply to flop on the beach, creates something to look forward to. “We expect to see an increase in overall searches, particularly to warmer destinations such as Spain and Portugal, towards the end of the month with a peak on 24 January,” he added.

The top ten destinations on Blue Monday last year, which fell on January 18, included Majorca and the island, which is already enjoying a considerable improvement in sunnier holiday sales, is expected to feature very high up on the list again.

Agents have already reported a positive start to 2011. Agents were apparently upbeat about the start of the January selling period, despite recognising it was going to be a tough year.

A Tui spokesman said sales on Monday and Tuesday were strong, particularly for the summer and other industry chiefs have said that despite fears about job losses, there were signs of returning consumer confidence.

SALES UP ON LAST YEAR “People will have less disposable income, but apart from the public sector people seem to be a lot more confident,” one source said.
So far, summer holiday sales this month are between two and eight percent up on this time last year and January is the key selling month for the UK travel industry. By the end of this month, the Balearics will have some clear indications as to how this summer season is going to pan out.

But, with Easter coming late at the end of April, it may mean that hotels will remain closed for longer than usual but once they do open, will remain open for the duration of the Easter and Summer holiday period thus creating one of the longest seasons in recent years.

[Belladonna]

This may be a good idea, as long as they are made to wear their uniforms all the time eh ladies!!?


Port of Pollensa air base opens its doors to European military tourism
STAFF REPORTER
POLLENSA
THE air base in the Port of Pollensa is opening up its facilities to the new European markets fulfilling its function as a holiday destination for staff of the military of NATO member states.

Last year, there were 40'000 overnight stays registered at the base, largely made during the high tourist season. For the first time, it was visited by soldiers coming from Austria and the Czech Republic.

The Colonel in Chief of the military base, Vicente Sanchez Salgado, released the figures last month during a speech made on the occasion of an annual Air Force celebration.

Sanchez took the opportunity to explain the importance of the Pollensa base in terms of the recreational facilities it provides to military personnel and their families. “Housing is provided to personnel from other European army staff as part of established agreements over exchange,” he said.

The base also acts as a training ground for air crews being schooled in the art of emergency survival, and search and rescue. At any given time, there is a rotating presence of some 45 military staff, said the Colonel in Chief.

The Ministry of Defence insists that the military base in the Port of Pollensa is of strategic national importance and has refused to allow members of the general public to use the facilities there, despite moves to the contrary by both Pollensa town council and by Central Government Congress itself. Both Council and Congress have wanted to set up an investigating committee to see what part of the base can be feasibly used by the general public.

The Majorcan Socialist party (PSM) said in its local magazine published this week that the Ministry of Defence is making “much ado about nothing” about the importance of the base in Pollensa.

A PSM commentator said that if the base was really of such significance, there are no circumstances under which the Ministry would allow it to be used by military staff from other countries for holiday purposes.

[Belladonna]

So lets all go and try and be in the background!


Award-winning British comedy to shoot film on location in Majorca
By Humphrey CarterPALMA
MAJORCA is going to be the location for part of the shoot of The Inbetweeners the movie over the coming months.
The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom which aired for three series from 2008 on E4 and now, with the series having apparently runs its course, Channel 4, through Channel 4 Films, has already begun shooting the film for the award-winning comedy which took Britain, and the United States, by storm.

Written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will, and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive.

The comedy has become a teen hit sensation and the internet is alive with blogs and chatter about how to become an extra on the film.
According to reports in the UKmedia, the currently-in-production big screen adventure has already secured itself a release date. Entertainment Film Distributors is said to be putting the film out in the UK, and it has reportedly earmarked Friday 19th August 2011 as the day that The Inbetweeners arrives in UK cinemas.

And, according to leaks of the script, the boys meet a group of four girls while on holiday to Malia, Crete and these are the scenes which it is understood are going to be shot here in Majorca over a period of four to five weeks.

Scenes are said to include fantasist Jay being terrorised by a nine-year-old local who pulls his swimming trunks down; Neil getting intimate with a dinner lady from his junior school as well as getting a dodgy tattoo.

The boys indulge in shambolic skinny-dipping and “suicide shots” of tequila, while Simon nearly drowns after a boat trip.
Palma Pictures, the Mediterranean Production Company, which helped produce the highly anticipated drama Mad Dogs for Sky1 last year, is providing the production services for the Majorca shoot and extras are being sought on the island.

Managing Director and Executive Producer Mike Day, confirmed to the Bulletin yesterday that the shoot is more or less all set to go ahead and that being involved in the making of the movie is another good result for Palma Pictures and Majorca which has recently set up a Film Commission to promote the island as an international audio visual centre for shooting films, television series and advertisements, something Palma Pictures have been doing for well over a decade with considerable global success and acknowledgment.

[Belladonna]

OTHER NEWS
FARMERS USING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY TO FIGHT THE FREEZING COLD
NEWSDESK
PALMA
FARMERS across Majorca are using the very latest technology to combat the cold and protect their crops from the big freeze.
Mini robots are watching the crops and monitoring weather conditions controlling either irrigating systems or special heating units. And, according to farmers in Sa Pobla, the rural heartland of Majorca’s agricultural industry, technology is serving to protect the island’s valuable potato and artichoke crops. The President of the Balearic Farmers’ Union, Gabriel Company said yesterday that people may have a simple image of farmers with their flat caps “but, we’ve got state-of-the-art robots monitoring our crops and other systems which we are controlling with our mobile telephones and, as soon as the temperature drops below -1ºC we get an alert from our robots and then text message the robots with the instructions of what they need to do, begin watering or activate the heating systems,” he explained.

Other farmers have also “double glazed” their greenhouses to protect the summer crops.

Seriously!!?? Is it April 1st already?!

[Belladonna]

Continuing previous post from November of last year;

OTHER NEWS
Subsea electricty cable will be a world record breaker
NEWSDESK
PALMA
ONCE completed, the subsea electricity cable link between Santa Ponsa and the mainland will be the longest ever single piece of cable used for a subsea interconnection. It will also be the second deepest in the world, reaching 1'485m below sea level, and will make up the first HVDC subsea connection in Spain. The connection will consist of two 250kV DC cables and one return cable, jointly manufactured by Nexans and Prysmian as part of a 375million euro contract awarded by Red Electrica. Initially, the link will provide around 25 per cent of the electricity consumed on the islands. Laying of the first cable began in mid-January and now the engineers are getting ready for the second leg, where it will lay the cable from Santa Ponsa to the coast of Sagunto near Valencia. With only two vessels able to do the job, the engineers are under a strict deadline to get the cables under water before holidaymakers hit the beaches.

So much is being done to the island "before holiday makers hit the beaches"!

[eleanor]

This is all good news but lets hope this project is completed before the holiday makers hit the scene. May bring a few sparks to the island! lol

[Gommar Goffer]

This is the report in the DB that has got me worried:-

OTHER NEWS
Pressure mounting against Balearic oil prospecting
By H. Carter

PALMA
THE President of the Balearics, Francesc Antich, yesterday spoke out against plans to begin prospecting for oil in Balearic waters.
Opposition to the project is widespread both here in the Balearics and in Valencia, as Valencian waters will also be affected, and Antich said that “tourism and oil prospecting” is totally incompatible.

The Minister for Tourism, Joana Barcelo, voiced her fears earlier this week and it appears that Antich and the Balearic government has the support of the tourist industry and the Majorcan Chamber of Commerce which threw its weight behind any campaign to stop the oil prospecting from going ahead.

Apparently, the multinational Cairn Energy has been given permission to begin prospecting in the Gulf of Valencia near the coasts of Valencia and the Balearics.

Joan Gual de Torrelall, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, said yesterday that he totally rejects the proposal claiming that such heavy industrial activity will pose a threat to the local environment, economy and tourist industry.

Torrella yesterday held a meeting with the Balearic Senator, Pere Sampol, in an attempt to have the issue raised in Madrid and with central government.
There are serious concerns that, if oil is found, then drilling platform will begin appearing off the coast of the Balearics.