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Regulació Estany des Peix

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Formentera installs air quality monitors in main buildings

foto 2020 mesurador aireThe Formentera Island Services Department, in association with the Formentera Education and Culture Department, reports that 80 sensors purchased recently for €2,258 will be installed in municipal facilities to ensure proper air quality. The devices issue real-time air-quality readings based on ambient carbon dioxide (C02) levels, temperature and humidity, plus keep time and an ongoing log of readings.

The Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Coordination Plan was adopted on 28 November and posted to the regional gazette. The plan, including a number of modifications released in the interim, encourages ventilation protocol, outdoor programming and, among other things, C02 monitors. The CPCCP mandates C02 levels remain below 800 parts per million (PPM), or failing that, that spaces be ventilated and capacity reduced until proper levels are attained.

The maintenance brigade will oversee setup of the devices in buildings with high-risk populations (old people’s clubs and the adult day care centre) and opening hours for the public (OAC and other Consell offices), so municipal nurseries, the School of Music and Dance and the fitness centre can reopen, as scheduled, after the Christmas holiday. Devices will also be installed in a host of other locations, including the municipal plenary hall, cinema, Sala d’Actes, libraries, CEN training room, Casal de Joves and Ràdio Illa.

28 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

Casal de Joves unveils January programme

cartell 2020 casal de joves generThe Formentera Youth Department shared the activities programme today for the local youth drop-in centre. Vanessa Parellada seized the occasion to wish island youth a happy 2021 — which Casal de Joves staff and youngsters will be kicking off “enthusiastically with a flurry of activities, despite the situation”.

Details from the Casal:

For “Arts and crafts with recycled items” on Saturday the 9th, we’ll use our hands to make, learn and change the world.

Two tournaments —table tennis and foosball— are scheduled for 16 and 22 December, respectively. The events are open to islanders between 10 and 26 years old, regardless of skill or interest level.

On Friday the 15th we’ll cover our eyes and play, reactivating both senses and empathy, for a “blind gymkhana”.

Face facts: construction is under way on the new skatepark, and island youth skate. On Saturday the 23rd we’ll host a workshop on skating for beginners and pros.

Reservations are required for all activities and can be made at the Casal or via email at casal@conselldeformentera.cat.

Other programming —Wednesday night movies, for example— remains unchanged. Dance will resume in February.

Activities have been tailored to ensure compliance for Covid-19 safety protocol.


28 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

Formentera in spotlight for new Consell-backed edition of Pine Islands’ folk songbook

foto OCFThe Formentera Heritage Department has partnered with editor Jaume Escandell Guasch to publish a Formentera-specific volume of a folk song repertory whose story stretches back to 1928, when Baltasar Samper i Ramon Morey put out the original Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya (“Popular Catalan Songbook”).

After close-ups on Sant Josep de sa Talaia (dir: Isidor Marí) and Sant Antoni de Portmany (Cati Marí Serra), the third installation in the “Pine Islands Songbook—1928” series features Isidor Marí’s return to coordinating duties and turns the spotlight on Formentera.

Heritage councillor Raquel Guasch congratulated Cançoner’s authors on their “exhaustive cataloguing of island culture at its most essential” and asserted, “This brings us closer to our roots through popular hometown music”.

In addition to an extensive collection of song lyrics documented by Baltasar Samper on Formentera between 15 and 18 September 1928, the volume also contains musical annotations by the author as well as thirty original photos of interview subjects and sites which struck Samper as eye-catching.

The physical documentation produced by Samper’s original 1928 mission in the Pine Islands is today kept at the Biblioteca de Montserrat. The Catalan government’s CDCPT holds the documents in their digital format.

Volume 10 of the “Popular Catalan Songbook”, put out in 2000 by Abadia de Montserrat Publishing, included a limited selection of texts and photographs, but the current edition constitutes the first-ever exhaustive release of Samper’s collected research.

The Formentera edition of the “Pine Islands Songbook” cost approximately €3,500 to put together and will be available in book stores. As ever, the edition had the support of the Consell de Formentera, Consell d’Eivissa, the town councils of Eivissa and the Balearic government.

21 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

Councillors gather for year-end plenary on environment and land grant for low-cost housing

foto 2020 ple desembreRepresentatives of the Consell de Formentera logged on today for their December gathering, a full-house session in which councillors handed cross-party support to motions on improved patrols and signage at Ses Salines nature reserve and on a land transfer to the Balearic housing authority so rent-controlled dwellings can be built in Sant Ferran.

Patrols and signage at Ses Salines
Environment chief Antonio J. Sanz defended a measure calling on the administration of Ses Salines nature reserve of Eivissa-Formentera to urgently replace ‘no swimming’ signs in Sa Sèquia canal; to produce a timeline for replacement and maintenance of signs identifying no-parking areas and shared pedestrian and motorist roads, and to incorporate additional personnel at the park. Sanz offered that “safeguarding the reserve is as vital as the work of every government agency involved”.

Solar panels at desalination plant
Universal backing was also secured by a measure calling on the Balearic government to “support energy transition goals, including in renewable energy, by initiating the necessary steps so photovoltaic panels can be installed at the desalination plant”. Councillor Sanz trumpeted the opposition’s embrace of the measure and described “cutting demand for electricity and generating clean energy with structures where additional construction or land is unnecessary” as “an integral part” of the Consell’s environmental policy.

Supporting local business
Assembly members again struck unity on a motion to support local business owners—“a primordial part of Formentera”, according to commerce councillor Ana Juan. The motion included an appeal to the Balearic government to make the needed provisions for investments in energy transition, modernisation and dynamisation to support local trade. Expounding on local and regional pandemic-related initiatives this year, Councillor Juan asserted, “What benefits Formentera’s businesses benefits the rest of Formentera, too”.

Unity was additionally struck on a proposal brought by sport councillor Paula Ferrer to urge the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make karate an official sport in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and onward.

Sa Unió proposals
Two proposals brought by Sa Unió party members were approved unanimously: one concerned upgrades on the Es Cap rubbish tip road, another saw councillors agitating for the urgent return of 10.30pm Eivissa-to-Formentera ferry service.

Land transfer to Ibavi
Assembly members found common ground green-lighting the transfer of a plot of land to the Balearic housing authority (Ibavi) ahead of plans to build social housing on carrer d’Alacant in Sant Ferran.

Land councillor Rafael González said the land transfer was part of a longstanding effort that would also entail construction of a new park and green spaces: “We’re hoping the build happens as soon as possible. It will be a housing supply boon for those who need it most.”

Remarks by Susana Labrador
Second deputy premiere and culture and education councillor Susana Labrador stood before the assembly to relate actions across her departments. She insisted the imprint of the pandemic was impossible to ignore: “It is abundantly clear that education and culture are assets and rights, and that they’re essential for society and for the holistic development of individual and collective personalities.” Labrador argued that that relevance hasn’t saved them, though, asserting both had suffered under the unfolding crisis. In that sense, the councillor made assurances that Formentera’s government would continue enacting public educational and cultural policies.

On education, the councillor reviewed the impact of pandemic-era school closures in March and underscored work by pupils, teachers and parents to adapt to new circumstances with virtual learning during the general shutdown and protocol for a safe return to classrooms afterwards. She also gave a summary of efforts to reshape service amid exceptional circumstances during lockdown, the subsequent loosening of restrictive measures and the new normal.

Labrador said the top priorities of Formentera’s office of culture were underpinned by three tenets: “First, continue creating new cultural facilities for the island and improving existing ones. Second, deliver quality cultural programming year round. Third, organise celebrations of local holidays and support groups and festival committees involved in organising patron saint and other cultural celebrations.” The councillor said that the indelible mark of the public health conjuncture has been clear since March, when, amid the months of toughest restrictions, programming went virtual before taking on its current customised form. Labrador concluded by praising the “hard work and commitment of municipal employees and all islanders who work in education and culture”.

Parellada reports
Vanessa Parellada appeared before the assembly today as well, speaking about actions since June 2019 in support the goals and efforts of her departments. “What do youth, citizen participation, new technologies, equality and LGBTI have in common?” she asked, referring to the departments in her purview, rounding off the list with the two departments she inherited from President Ferrer. “They’re all transversal, cutting across the municipal departments and affecting Formentera as a whole.”

Underpinning youth policy is the second version of the Strategic Plan for Children and Youth, a document which councillors adopted during the previous legislative term. While accepting that lockdown constituted a “shake-up”, the councillor asserted that “youth remained at the forefront”, and offering that some young islanders discovered the local youth drop-in centre thanks to the pandemic. Identifying ongoing challenges like continuing to rethink the drop-in centre, Parellada also drew attention to the start of work on the new skate park and praised the well-working order of the Escola d’Estiu recreational programme despite the state of public health affairs.

Parellada underlined the launch of a WhatsApp chat group to complement the Formentera Citizen Participation Department’s e-mail communications with local community groups, insisting the app continued to remain relevant today. The councillor also pointed out local associations had opted to devote the allocation for this year’s “participatory spending” initiative to social spending on account of the pandemic—“something all the cabinet councillors are quite proud of”, she said.

And Parellada applauded liaisons in the new technologies department, who, with the change to remote working in March, dedicated particular energy to supporting their colleagues. She said the growing list of services accessible to islanders on the OVAC [Virtual Citizen Information Office] was behind planned upgrades aimed at making the site simpler and more intuitive.

The councillor said that plans were underway further develop equality measures included in Formentera’s Integrated Equality Plan. Currently in force, the plan supports local community groups who promote equality and sexual and gender diversity. Finally, she said LGBTI policy was “fundamentally rooted in visibility and awareness building around diversity of gender identities and sexual orientation, and not just on a few specific days (to depathologise trans identities, to fight LGBTIphobia, etc.) but all year long”.

22 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

29 local fishermen complete basic safety course

foto 2020 curs pescadors 2Last week 29 islanders with jobs in the local fishing industry took part in basic safety training organised by the Formentera Department of Agriculture and Fishing in association with the Balearic office of fishing, Palma’s Integrated Centre for Vocational Training in Nautical-Fisheries (CIFP Nàuticopesquera) and the Formentera Fishermen’s Guild.

Attended by FFG members and mandatory for any individual employed on a local fishing fleet, the hands-on course offered participants techniques to assist in survival, prevention and firefighting.

Department councillor Josep Marí pointed out that the classes were organised in such a way as to minimise travel, particularly at the present time. He praised the whole team’s efforts and highlighted the fact that no one’s accreditation required travel to Mallorca.

21 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

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