The president of the Formentera Council, Jaume Ferrer, wishes to congratulate Neus Mateu for her recent appointment as the central government's director for the Pityuses. Mateu's assignment fills a void that was left by Roger Sales in January 2017.

By coincidence, Mateu's arrival has overlapped with the winter holidays of the CiF chairman, making him unable to attend a ceremony for the appointment.

Nevertheless, the addition of Mateu is being seen as a boost to efforts of the Council and the administration in Madrid. Take, for example, an initiative to heighten security, agreed at the most recent meeting of a security commission (junta de seguretat) on the island in December.

Today at noon Formentera Council president Jaume Ferrer presented the head of the Alavés football club with a token of appreciation for the team's visit to Formentera for a Copa del Rey match which pitted SD Formentera against Deportivo Alavés. A plaque mounted on marès limestone reads “From Formentera to Deportivo Alavés. Formentera Council. January 3, 2018”. The upper portion contains a representation of the island of Formentera. It is set against a background of metallic posidonia seagrass, highlighting the crucial ecological role played by the world-heritage plant. Local artist Andrés Rodríguez was called on to create the piece, which will adorn the team's collection.

An SD Formentera representative and Vicent Bufí, chairman of a committee of the Balearic football federation, also presented the Alavés club with gifts. Lunch was held afterwards at Bellavista with the management of both teams, the CiF president and sports secretary Jordi Vidal.

The Formentera Council convened today its December plenary session, where support came for a proposed ordinance on terraces and other arrangements that occupy public spaces. The administration's land, tourism and trade secretary Alejandra Ferrer says the measure will include changes such as new articles to remove procedural obstacles and facilitate patrols.

Aiming to strike a balance between the use restaurants, hotels and other businesses make of public spaces in pursuing their professional activity, and the broader public interest, the rule change seeks to ensure a minimum level of disturbance whenever businesses occupy the public thoroughfare, considering that “public interests should always trump private ones” as its gold standard. Of particular note is a provision holding that any establishment wishing to set up a terrace must also open at least May 15 to October 15

One particular provision, that establishments with terraces must also open at least May 15 to October 15, is part of a bid to encourage shopping in the off-season and offer support to businesses that are open longer. The measure was backed by senior councillors and members of the PSOE and saw the abstention of the PP and Compromís.

The green light was given to a proposed jobs catalogue (or Catàleg de Llocs de Treball) for the Formentera Council. Vanessa Parellada, the administration's head of human resources, pledged ongoing work and talks with public servants' legal reps would lead to a new jobs estimate equipped with administrative guidelines on employment. The measure got backing from all the parties except the PP, whose members abstained.

Rule on vehicle ingress to Formentera
Plenary members were united in their support of an emergency measure to regulate the vehicles that enter Formentera. As part of the measure, the Council will urge the regional government in Palma to urgently create a legal mechanism to limit the cars arriving on the island.

Speaking after the plenary session, CiF president Jaume Ferrer said that, as with the proposed relocation of Formentera passengers' Eivissa ferry landing, the administration would back whatever course of action is decided by the island's coalition of community leaders, the Consell d'Entitats.

Mobility secretary Rafael González reminded his associates that the journey towards regulating vehicle entry to the island began two years ago, and called to mind a meeting of the advisory body back in September 2014, when it voted to enlist the Formentera Council in brokering a fix. As a result, a plenary agreement was reached and the issue was included among 14 others proposed at the start of the legislative session. González assured that since then the administration has been working with the regional government to author a proposal.

Yesterday, Formentera Council president Jaume Ferrer sat down with a spokesperson of the proprietors of Sa Senieta to sign a bill of sale for the protected €2.5-million property. Of that total, one million will come from the so-called “Sustainable Tourism Tax”, another half million will be bankrolled by the Govern balear's department of culture, community involvement and sport and the remainder will be paid for by the Formentera Council.

The cultural value of the edifice is monumental; Sa Senieta is the only estate on the island protected under a piece of legislation known as Ley 12/1998, of December 21, on historical heritage in the Balearics. Included under the tag AT-C-150 on the island's catalogue of cultural assets in 2002, the site is designated for level B protection.

Sa Senieta presents a one of a kind example of traditional Formentera architecture for a variety of reasons. First because the building contains two fairly large dwellings with a more complex distribution than is typical on the island. Second, having escaped renovation, Sa Senieta is relatively well maintained. As such, stylings, materials and finishes are all original work. And third because, until more extensive investigations prove otherwise, current historical knowledge situates the construction of the home and lot on which it sits in the eighteenth century.

The purchase of Sa Senieta squares with the island's 2017-2019 directive on the restoration, conservation and acquisition of cultural heritage assets, which favours sites with significant patrimonial protection and those in advanced states of disrepair.