Formentera Council to provide more justification for historic town centres

Foto RP valoració sentènciaFormentera Council (CiF) president Jaume Ferrer was joined today by vice president and councillor of patrimony, Susana Labrador, vice president and councillor of the presidential office, Bartomeu Escandell, and vice president and councillor of land, Alejandra Ferrer, to give their assessment of a decision of the supreme court. The decision, which upholds a February 2014 ruling handed down by the Balearic Islands superior court of justice, strikes down the remapped limits of Formentera's historic town centres citing a lack of justification to substantiate the redrawn centres.

President Ferrer said the CiF's criteria was «to protect those sites with patrimonial value that are located within a town's urban centre» and noted such places are often spread out and not necessarily near a church. As Ferrer pointed out, that standard differs from the one used to define patrimony in Eivissa and Formentera, which sets a town's epicentre as the church and from there extends protection over a radius of 250 metres.

More justification

Ferrer said that at present, the supreme court «has not nullified the model applied heretofore in Formentera. Rather, it has requested further explanation be given for it. Specifically, the court has asked justification for the sites accorded official protection as well as those not included but still within the 250-metre radius of the town church. The reasoning was that the sites of neither patrimonial nor architectural interest. And this must be now justified in Formentera's report on its historic town centres». He clarified the court has not found Formentera's criteria erroneous, simply requiring further justification. Which means, he added, «the Council will now set a process in motion to draft a report redefining the historic centres of the island».