The president of the Formentera Council (CiF), together with his office's top councillor and the CiF infrastructure councillor, paid a visit today to the la Savina port with several officials from the port authority of the Balearic Islands (APB). President Jaume Ferrer and councillors Bartomeu Escandell and Rafael González were joined by APB president Joan Gual de Torrella, the agency's director, Juan Carlos Plaza, APB's Eivissa and Formentera chair Joaquin Jiménez and other members of staff.

After the tour the officials regrouped in the local administration's plenary hall and de Torrella laid out his agency's plan to completely revamp the Port de la Savina, creating a promenade “without barriers”. The works are scheduled to begin in 2018.

The future site of the Formentera ferry landing in the Eivissa port was also a protagonist in the morning discussion. Council president Ferrer cited a September 28 meeting which APB's board of directors will use to initial the agreement to relocate the landing 200 metres from the current location.

Finally, the group visited the la Mola lighthouse following an announcement from the APB president that officials at the same board meeting would green-light a deal giving the Formentera government management of the town's flagship monument. Plans are in place to turn the landmark into a centre for cultural activities.

 

The Formentera Council wishes to express its deepest sorrow following the death at noon today of a woman on a beach between Es Ministre restaurant and Es Pas des Trucadors. At approximately 1.00pm lifeguard and rescue services were notified that a woman, 61 years old and Austrian, was unconscious on a beach. According to witnesses at the scene, the woman was in an area where the water was calm and swimming was authorised when she suffered a sudden attack.

A number of beachgoers performed cardiac resuscitation until lifeguards arrived, at which point the latter carried on with the task. The victim was then transported by rescue service watercraft to the Es Ministre beach where an ambulance sat ready to take her to the hospital. None of emergency services' efforts were successful, however, at saving the woman's life. The victim had come to Formentera as part of a group day trip from Eivissa.

In an announcement from the president's office, the Formentera Council reported that a wildfire that broke out at 11.45am this morning and ultimately swept through some 0.71 hectares of pine forest between Venda del Molí and s'Estany Pudent had already been given “controlled” status by 1.30pm today. The news was relayed by the chief firefighter on the scene, an employee of the Govern Balear's environment department. In the words of CiF president's office councillor Bartomeu Escandell, firefighting crews are presently “busy keeping the ground in the affected area waterlogged” and are expected to downgrade the blaze to “extinguished” by this afternoon.

The CiF fire brigade's arsenal, which includes four firemen, two lorries and a pick-up, complimented the work done by Ibanat, the Balearic Islands' institute of nature. Explaining the relatively quick work crews made of the flames, Escandell pointed to the assistance provided by emergency crews as well as an ample supply of other resources. Along with the two squads that traveled to the island, a staff specialist, a head firefighter, two AMA agents and two rapid-response specialists, three planes and two helicopters were also dispatched to control the flames. Escandell was quick to praise the work of six civil protection volunteers, water lorry operators and the efforts of local police and Guardia Civil. The causes of the fire are still a mystery, and Escandell asked the people of the island to remain vigilant, calling current fire risk “very elevated”.

The president's office of the Formentera Council announced today that the fifth chamber of a Palma court for administrative litigation had thrown out a suit brought by a state prosecutor representing the regional government in the Balearics. Dated September 1, 2016, the verdict dismisses the prosecution's case and orders the Spanish state to pay related court costs.

The state's counsel had challenged a decision by the Formentera Council, August 22, 2014, to green-light a call for nine new recruits to the island's local police force. The prosecutor unsuccessfully charged that the central government's ban on new hires applied to action by the Council. Escandell hailed the verdict as “confirm[ing] the legality of the Council's effort to consolidate the local police force”.