Residents of Pere Garau consider a 24-hour health center more urgent than a police station.
The Cort will include a local police station in the multi-service center that will be located in the former Metropolitan cinema.
Cort will include a Local Police station in the nearly 7,000-square-meter multi-service center that will be built in the former Metropolitan cinema in Pere Garau, Palma's most populated neighborhood. In response to this announcement, some local residents felt that a 24-hour health center is more necessary than a police station. "I think it's great that there is a police station, but health comes first, and we will continue to fight for this facility. It's absurd that Palma's most populated neighborhood doesn't have one," remarked Genoveva Martín, a member of the Flipau con Pere Garau neighborhood platform.
For her part, Chelo Hernández, vice president of the Pere Garau Neighborhood Association, considered that Pere Garau needs a police station to maintain "proximity" to the Local Police, since, as she explained, "sometimes they are too far from what the residents need." However, he emphasized that the neighborhood association's main demand is the opening of a Primary Care Emergency Service (SUAP) so that patients do not have to travel to the Escuela Graduada station, which is located in a low-emission zone and does not have a nearby parking lot.
The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, explained that the police station will have 30 Local Police officers and will aim to "combat incivility." He also explained that the Governing Board of the city approved this Wednesday the launch of the competition for ideas for the multi-service center, which has a budget of almost €17 million. The deadline for applications will begin this Thursday and end on December 15th. According to Martínez, the works will be put out to tender in 2026.
Among the uses this new building will be a new daycare center, a basic health unit, a citizen information office, a library, a neighborhood center, a daycare center, and a parking lot with three underground levels, along with the police station. Martínez indicated that this will allow the City Council to save approximately 70,000 euros in rent for other premises for these facilities needed by the Pere Garau neighborhood. In fact, the ideas competition plans to reserve a space for each of them.
Furthermore, he noted that he would personally like the winning competition to include some detail that recalls the building's use as a cinema, but that is something that could not be included in the competition conditions because it is legally prohibited.
