Formentera's lazy houses: the new Director of Costs backs in 11 minutes the 80-page report that changes the criteria

PalmMinistry of the Sea and Water Cycle, August 17, 2:15 p.m. The head of the Legal Service, Mariano Socias, digitally signs an 80-page legal report and resolution proposal on the controversial authorizations for sunbeds and umbrellas in Formentera. The proposal is to re-authorize a large part of the facilities that the Directorate General of Coasts had excluded just three months earlier.

At 2:26 p.m., just 11 minutes after Socias' digital signature, the new Director General of Coasts and Littoral, Joan Jaume Mulet, also stamps his signature: "Agreed with the proposal. I decree resolution". Exactly, 10 minutes and 44 seconds had passed.

A record time for an 80-page document. This does not mean that Jaume Mulet did not know the file previously. "He surely already knew it in draft form," explains a consulted source. "In any case, the most advisable thing as director general is to re-read the reports from top to bottom, because there may be changes, and you are the one who is responsible," he adds.

With the signature, the new director general has authorized a good number of facilities that had been left out of the first resolution. The Ministry is the same, the file is the same, and the beaches are also the same. But the result has been substantially different.The initial reduction of sun loungers and umbrellas had not been a personal decision of the then general director, Maria Joaquina Ferrer. Before the resolution of May 7, there was a partially unfavorable report-proposal from the head of Negotiate XIII and a also partially unfavorable resolution proposal from the head of the Authorizations Service.

The rejections did not simply respond to the will of Costes to reduce the number of sun loungers. The reports applied the limitations that the services of the General Directorate understood as derived from the regulations of Costes and the protection of the affected natural spaces. Among the reasons that led to installations being left out were non-compliance with the distances from the promenade, the separation between installations or plots, and the protection distances for dune systems.

Ferrer had not decided on her own that there were too many sun loungers in Formentera. The resolution assumed previous reports that considered that a part of the requested installations did not comply with the required conditions to occupy the maritime-terrestrial public domain and protected areas. Ferrer heeded the technical reports, as in the other controversial case of her mandate: the proposal for the expiry of beachfront bars in public domain for non-compliance with concession criteria.

Instead, after the referral and the new allegations presented by the Consell de Formentera, in the file examined by ARA Balears, there is no new technical report from the General Directorate of Costes that supports the new distribution. The proposal that ends up changing the result is of a legal nature and is signed by Mariano Socias, head of the Legal Service of the Ministry.

Revolt of the awardees

The first resolution opened a first-rate political conflict in Formentera. The beach concessionaires reacted with enormous displeasure to the reduction of sunbeds and umbrellas, and the Council became the leading voice of the protests. The island institution demanded that the Government rectify a decision it considered unjustified and also took the battle to the administrative arena.

On June 9, the Council filed a motion for reconsideration against the denials. The conflict thus moved from the beaches to the offices. Ten days later, on June 19, the same Directorate General of Coasts issued a specific technical report in relation to the appeal filed by Formentera.

But the move that would end up changing the course of the file would come a month later. On July 17, the Minister of the Sea and Water Cycle upheld the appeal and ordered the procedure to be reversed, that is, to go back in the processing to the moment of the partially unfavorable pronouncements that had preceded Ferrer's resolution. In addition, it granted Formentera a new procedure so that it could present allegations and new documentation.

A second chance for the sunbeds

Formentera took advantage of the second chance. The Council provided new plans and its own technical report with a redistribution of the denied facilities, beach by beach and installation by installation.

Here is one of the keys that helps to understand how the new result is achieved. Formentera did not necessarily give up the loungers that Costas had rejected. In many cases, it modified their location or reduced the occupied area, but maintained the number of loungers and umbrellas.

At Cavall d'en Borràs, for example, Costas had denied an installation of 20 loungers and 10 umbrellas, because it did not comply with the six-meter separation from the dunes. The new proposal maintains the 20 loungers and 10 umbrellas, but modifies their location and reduces the occupation from 150 to 100 square meters.

At Illetes, something similar happens. An installation of 26 loungers and 13 umbrellas that had been denied retains the 39 elements, but goes from 195 to 120 square meters. The loungers, therefore, had not disappeared: they had learned to occupy less space.

The criteria changes and the director changes

But between the first resolution and the second there is another important difference. Maria Joaquina Ferrer was no longer there. The general director who had signed the denials had been summarily dismissed and the Government had placed Joan Jaume Mulet at the head of Coasts.

After the retraction and the new documentation provided by Formentera, the file examined by ARA Balears does not contain a new subsequent technical report from the General Directorate of Coasts to support this new distribution. The document immediately preceding the new resolution is the 80-page legal report and proposed resolution prepared by the head of the Legal Service.

The change in outcome occurred after a sequence of ignoring: the Coasts services had initially reported in a restrictive sense, Ferrer had assumed that criterion, Formentera had revolted and appealed, the minister had ordered to go back in the processing, the Council had presented a new proposal, Ferrer had been dismissed despite the support of the Coasts technicians and a new general director had taken her place.

And we return to August 17. 14:15: Mariano Socias signs. 14:26: the new general director signs. 10 minutes and 44 seconds for the 80-page legal report and proposed resolution signed by the legal head to receive the approval of the person responsible for Coasts. Despite being an economist by training and former mayor, with no experience in the administration of the regional coast, Jaume Joan did not need much time to give his full support to the report and proposed resolution. The sun loungers that three months earlier had not met the Coasts criterion were once again authorized in large part.