Residents of Santa Catalina study legal actions against the Feixina Christmas market
The entity wants to know what role the employers' associations have in the mediation of this small market and who collected what the promoter paid and who had to pay the costs, among others
PalmaThe Barri Cívic de Santa Catalina and El Jonquet association has placed the awarding procedure of the Christmas Market, which was installed for two months in the Feixina park, in the hands of lawyers to check if it complies with the law, due to the lack of information from the Palma City Council. The residents of the Santa Catalina neighborhood have denounced in a statement that they have not yet received a clear institutional response to the information request they made about the details of the awarding of the controversial market, "even though many months have passed," they denounce.
In this regard, they consider that the organization of an event of these characteristics, which implies the private exploitation for more than two months of a public space, "deserves many more explanations" than those provided so far by the Department of Commerce, Markets and Fairs of the Palma City Council. "Decisions of this magnitude, which involve sacrificing the use that citizens normally make of a public park and which have a whole series of added negative collateral effects for a residential neighborhood, cannot be carried out behind the backs of the neighbors nor be done in such an un-transparent way", they lamented.
Among the issues on which they are requesting clarification, they want to know the justification for two local business associations, Pimeco and Afedeco, "acting as intermediaries in an event where the least promoted was local product, culture, or crafts." They also ask, "who collected what the event's promoter company paid and who covered the costs" of this street market. Furthermore, they warn that one of the fountains in the Feixina park continues to be out of order "since the ice rink of the sadly famous Christmas Market was installed above it." Faced with what they describe as "opacity" and with the intention that "facts like this of dubious public interest are not repeated in the future," the Civic Neighborhood of Santa Catalina and El Jonquet has initiated a formal process through a law firm, "with the aim of having all the guarantees that this Christmas Market awarding procedure complies with the regulations."