Formentera local police have brought charges in 8 cases of alleged itinerant vending on Ses Illetes beach between August 13 and 14.

Law enforcement agents struck two supply points and one station used by the beachside vendors to prepare and sell mojitos. The agents confiscated 99 articles of clothing, 305 bottles of water, 40 refreshments, 54 necklaces, 8 plastic containers of fruit, 5 coconuts and a rucksack with material for making mojitos.

The administrative offices of the Spanish courts have issued an interlocutory order in favour of the Formentera Council (CiF), objecting to the elimination of 9 staff positions on the island's local police force. The decision opposes a motion filed May 30 by the Spanish state's legal counsel on behalf of the Popular Party (PP) to enforce a February 28 ruling, known as “87/2017”.

In the order, magistrate Núria Ramos endorses the CiF's case, saying: “The court has weighed the different interests and finds that the Formentera Council has both stated and sufficiently documented its arguments”. Likewise, Ramos says, representatives of the national government have not demonstrated that any damages would proceed from failing to implement the [February 28] order. The court ordered Spain's attorney to pay for legal fees associated with the trial.

'PP actions are placing Formentera at risk'
Bartomeu Escandell, the CiF's secretary in charge of the tax office, rural affairs and police, blasted the “double talk” of the conservative party, saying: “In plenary sessions, PP operatives claim Formentera lacks sufficient law enforcement agents, yet they use every means at their disposal to impede the deployment of those resources. The attacks waged by Madrid's Formentera delegation on the new jobs on the police force are an example of that”.

Escandell called requests this year to cut 9 permanent staff even as the state government solicited 5,197 new positions on the national police and Guardia Civil forces “hypocritical” and “irresponsible with respect to our safety on Formentera”.

Escandell continued: “Conservative party officials have got every right to disagree with our administration and members of our party. However, on issues of safety, any serious national government must understand that part of its job is to ensure there are enough police. This is not an issue where Madrid can cut corners”.

Background
The Madrid delegation filed an administrative appeal to block an agreement reached by the CiF on August 22, 2014 calling for applicants for 9 positions on the Formentera local police force.

Administrative court number 1 in Palma dismissed the motion on September 1, 2016. Surprisingly, the PP government in Madrid appealed that ruling. Earlier this year, on February 28, the call for applicants was rescinded, and Madrid requested immediate enforcement of the ruling.

This most recent interlocutory order was issued at the end of July, upholding the Council's calls to block enforcement of the February ruling.

Having worked throughout the afternoon and into the evening on August 10, fire crews of the Formentera Council resumed water removal efforts today after rainfall left parking areas in the ses Salines nature reserve flooded.

Parc Natural de ses Salines, which comprises Illetes and Llevant beaches, limits private parking in order to ensure access for emergency vehicles. As a result, response operations today meant fewer park visitors could enter the park, with car queues overflowing to the adjacent highway.

Council officials expect the park will see a return to semi-normal conditions by tomorrow and have thanked ses Salines employees as well as local police and Guardia Civil agents for their work dealing with traffic slowdowns and redirecting visitors to other beaches.

When the storm and rains that began August 9 at 8.00pm subsided the morning of August 10, Formentera's fire brigade and local police were left dealing with 10 minor incidents across the island. Five involved flooded storefronts and another five concerned trees that had fallen on country roads and other arterials.

The electrical storm caused power failures and telephone cuts, which meant municipal offices in Sant Ferran and the Citizen Information Office (OAC) saw communication disrupted, affecting work throughout the day on August 10.

Eight sailboats run aground
Strong gusts of wind yesterday evening left eight boats stranded on the sand and rocks of Cala Saona. By the morning, all the ships on the sand had been hauled back out to sea, leaving just one—which had run aground on rocks—to be dealt with.

This morning in la Savina port, one sunken ship held up the passage of ferries carrying vehicles and had yet to be removed as of 1.00pm today. Formentera's firefighters and local police offered help to maritime rescue forces and Guardia Civil, which oversaw salvage operations.