The Cort will not "in any way" recover galley licenses.

Palma City Council is not considering "under any circumstances" reintroducing horse carriage licenses because this "would represent a very high cost" for the municipal institution, according to a statement today from the Councilor for Finance, Public Administration, and Government, Mercedes Celeste. The need for horse carriages to evolve toward another system is "voluntary," she emphasized. However, she assured that "if there is interest in doing so, the City Council will support it."

Celeste emphasized that the City Council will use "every means" to ensure that horse carriages that do not comply with regulations are sanctioned and monitored. The Cort spokesperson noted that the municipal institution has already fined a horse carriage and assured that if "this situation has to happen again, it will happen without a problem."

On the other hand, the City Council will conduct an extraordinary inspection of the two horses that collapsed in recent days in the center of Palma while stretching their carriages. Cort has confirmed that the two incidents The accidents were not due to heat exhaustion or the poor condition of the animals, but rather traffic accidents. According to municipal sources, the inspections will be carried out this Friday.

Animal rights parties such as Progreso en Verde and Pacma have criticized the accidents and have called on the City Council to find an alternative to the horse-stretching stalls. If not, Pacma has announced that it will not rule out taking legal action.

Subsidies to neighborhood associations

After the Palma neighborhood associations attacked Cort last Wednesday for the delay in aidThe City Council has already begun disbursing the subsidies, which amount to almost 800,000 euros. Celeste recalled that the aid was definitively approved last week after resolving two "technical errors" and assured that payments began between Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Along the same lines, the spokesperson announced that 99% of the subsidies have already been paid. The remaining 1%, she explained, corresponds to "two or three associations" that, due to a matter "unrelated" to the City Council, have not yet been able to sign the payments.

Complete the works on the Prince's Bastion

The Governing Board of Palma City Council has approved the signing of an action protocol with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda to complete the works on the Baluarte del Príncipe (Prince's Bastion). The document refers to the restoration and rehabilitation of the Ronda promenade of Palma's walls in the Baluarte del Príncep area.

The works began in 2008 and were divided into six different phases. The first four were carried out between 2009 and 2017, while the last two began in early 2020. However, due to the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic and the "problems" the company encountered, Celeste noted, the works had to be interrupted.

In November 2024, the City Council submitted an updated project to the Ministry to complete the two pending phases, valued at around €1.8 million, which was previously approved by the Governing Board. Since then, the works have not been put out to tender, and now, "with the aim of unblocking this situation," the City Council and the Ministry will sign this protocol, which is expected to resolve the deadlock.

The protocol establishes a framework for institutional collaboration "without binding financial or legal commitments," the spokesperson explained. Based on the document, the City Council will be responsible for managing the administrative procedures, authorizing interventions and public use, and collaborating in the bidding process. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, for its part, must supervise and approve the project, put it out to tender and finance it, as well as carry out its technical and administrative monitoring.

Each institution must designate a person responsible for holding regular meetings to monitor the actions, coordinate, and review the project's progress. Although the actions are already 92 percent complete, Celeste indicated, the protocol is valid for four years, extendable at other times, at the request of the Ministry, which is responsible for funding them.