The Formentera Council's surveillance services are announcing the rollout of coastal drone patrols to complement fishing checks. The goal, says Bartomeu Escandell, chief of the president's office and secretary of rural affairs, “is to leverage low-cost surveillance technology to take aim at illegal fishing on our coasts”. The new service will complement the conventional patrols already carried out by the Council's fleet.

An outside specialist firm is being brought in to oversee the inspections, which will include 15 monthly flights. The checks, conducted by Drones Mallorca for €11,205 before tax, began July 15 and will continue through December 31.

Each patrol will require a report including photo evidence and write-ups of possible offending actions. Any legal action to follow—and the specific authorities to be concerned—will be determined according to where illegal activity took place. The new technology can be harnessed to guarantee that both professional and recreational fishermen abide by existing rules. Next week will see the start of a push to monitor raor fishing.

In observing a minute of silence outside the steps of the Casa Consistorial at 12 noon today, the women and men of the Formentera Council wished to express their sorrow following the attack that shook Barcelona yesterday and show solidarity with the victims and their families.

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.