Jaume Ferrer, chair of the Formentera Council, met with Baltasar Picornell as part of a visit by the head of the Balearic parliament to deepen local engagement with the Palma lawmaking body. A subsequent meeting, held immediately after, included the rest of the CiF's team of councillors.

Ferrer extended thanks to Picornell for his visit and drew special attention to a gathering to take stock held at the Council's main office on April 7.

Last night members of the Sant Ferran community gathered to review the Formentera Council's road map for the town's centre in the years ahead. Council chair Jaume Ferrer and Rafael González, the administration's infrastructure councillor, together with senior members of specialist architecture firm Estudi Lunar, shared details of the project in order to engage residents in discussion and get input on possible improvements.

Pitched as an articulation of the Sant Ferran identity, the project envisions repositioning the town as the island's cultural stronghold, a bid that will rest on constructing cultural facilities on the current site of the town's school. Dubbed a “centre for the arts,” plans for the complex include a theatre/auditorium, community centre and school of art. The firm hopes to fit the town with a cutting-edge public amenities infrastructure that is specially tooled to promote social gatherings and use of public spaces.

Introductory efforts
The gathering served to chart the project's initial phases, which officials expect will begin November 1, 2017. On carrers Guillem de Montgrí and València work will be focused on beautifying the streets for residents and cyclists. The two arterials will remain open to vehicles though additional plans are afoot for a change in the direction of traffic, a measure aimed at stemming south-north crossings of the town and forcing drivers to instead use the nearby roundabout. The current draft project was designed by Open Fabric, a firm specialised in urbanism.

Today was the second session of the debate on the state of Formentera. All but the socialists gave approval to a Gent per Formentera proposal urging the Govern de les Illes Balears to heed comments submitted by the Formentera Council and accelerate the process for a parliamentary law on housing.

Land councillor Alejandra Ferrer took the floor in favour of that proposal and another one (adopted unanimously) calling on the Palma administration to ratchet up staff resources at the Formentera branch of IBAVI, the Balearic housing agency. Besides setting up regular weekday hours at the office, which would give Formentera residents information on the services and benefits available to them, the measure includes the future possibility of a joint initiative with the Council to establish things like a register of year-long rental listings and legal advise.

Plenary attendees also gave unanimous approval to a transactional measure lobbying the Council to do what it can to free up public land in its control for more social housing. The proposal also presses the Govern to give IBAVI additional funding to finance such new construction projects.

Restricted vehicle access
Unanimous go-ahead was also given to a Gent per Formentera motion advocating that the Govern de les Illes Balears allow the Council to use—and restrict vehicle access to—an area of es Cap de Barbaria known as sa Tanca d'Allà Dins. Head of the president's office Bartomeu Escandell called the measure “protection of an important environmental site” aimed at “guaranteeing the sustainable and sensible enjoyment of such a special place”. Officials hope to restrict all but foot and bike access to sa Tanca in summertime.

Sant Ferran cultural centre
With “yes” votes from the governing team and rejection from the other parties, the session brought approval for a measure to relocate the Council's education, culture and patrimony offices to Sant Ferran de ses Roques. The move is aimed at “culivating the town as the island's main cultural centre”.

Tourism promotion
All parties gave their support to Gent per Formentera's call for the Govern Balear to fully transfer powers on tourism promotion to the individual island councils. The appeal also includes a request for “fair and sufficient financing” and compelling improvements to be made on the proposal from the previous legislative session.

Full support was also given to Gent per Formentera's proposal to enlist renewable energy providers when sourcing the administration's power needs.

Local senator
In another unanimously adopted proposal, this time from the socialist party, the Council was pushed to table an initiative in the Balearic parliament calling for changes to the Spanish constitution and other texts so that Formentera could have its own senator.

Controls on moorage
All parties at the plenary supported a socialist motion to “work with the Palma government on expanded control of the Formentera seaboard”. Recently appraised of the fact that the Govern's moorage assistance and inspection service won't start until June, CiF environment councillor Daisee Aguilera repeated a call for the regional administration to oversee minimum surveillance at least from early May.

According to Aguilera, the service entails other crucial functions not related to boat anchoring, like tracking spills, stopping party boats and providing information to the public.

Another PSOE measure, pressing the Council to earmark “specific and sufficient funding” for the island's 2018 youth action plan, also received unanimous “yes” votes.

Approval also came for the PP's transactional proposal urging the Balearic port authority to suspend all but exceptionally urgent works within the Formentera port between May 1 and October 15.

Another PP measure that benefitted from the governing team's cooperation and received the approval of all parties calls on the Council to “continue seeking consensus with opposition groups regarding the regulation of tourist rentals”. Tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer was behind the decision to add “continue” to the wording, saying this process is already the norm.

Plenary members also gave full support to a call from Compromís to press the Govern to begin a study of autochtonous livestock.

All parties supported Compromís's proposal urging a report from the coast guard on our sand dunes and possible shortcomings in coastline protections. That measure also included input from the Council's governing team. Cross-party support was also secured for Compromís's call to bring back Formentera's sports gala.

Of the 29 proposals made, 15—or 52%—were passed.

Formentera’s government formalised plans to work with ACAF, the island’s audiovisual cultural association, on content for local public radio broadcaster Ràdio Illa. Top-ranking Consell official Jaume Ferrer and Carmelo Convalia, spokesman for ACAF, laid the groundwork for the Consell’s support for the group, with funding of €50,000 in 2017.

Under the agreement, ACAF pledges to promote communication, information and entertainment across the community; drive social and cultural engagement in the local community and ensure the inclusion of Formentera’s most representative social and political groups. The agreement also highlights the need to “reach out to nonprofits”. ACAF will also be on the hook “as a source of expression and creativity” and commits to “fomenting community involvement and leveraging Formentera’s cultural capital, particularly in Catalan; communicating local cultural, social, leisure and fitness initiatives to residents; teaming up on educational and other kinds of outreach.”

The Consell, for its part, will offer ACAF use of the audiovisual equipment and facilities of the Casal de Joves Centre Social “El Molí”.