According to the Formentera Council's Office of Local Heritage, a team of architects specialised in restoring cultural heritage sites has since June been teeing up a study on traditional architecture on Formentera. The study follows the 2014 adoption by the Consell del Patrimoni Històric (Council on Historical Patrimony) of a national plan for traditional architecture. In the words of CiF heritage councillor Susana Labrador, the study is intended to promote “criteria, methods and efforts to document, investigate, protect, restore, disseminate and frame traditional architecture as a fundamental part of the cultural heritage of each of Spain's regions.”

The study's authors set out first to analyse and explain the influence of a shifting economic model in the 1960s and 1970s on Formentera's traditional architecture. Second, they aimed to establish the criteria and protocol to guide projects that effect traditional architecture. The goal of the study is to conserve and maintain aspects of cultural value (buildings, materials and construction techniques) without losing sight of the need to uphold current standards of comfort and well-being. The authors of the study had one year to complete their work. Councillor Labrador envisions the completed study will serve as a sort of “best practises manual, which should be a benchmark for future projects on buildings that represent Formentera's traditional architectural heritage”.

Research team
At the helm of the team are Dr Fernando Vegas and Dr Camila Mileto, lecturers at Universitat Politècnica de València. Both have strong backgrounds in historical heritage site restoration, namely in the region of Valencia, and are joined in their work by Aina Serrano Espases, who is a historical heritage specialist on the Mallorca Council and a representative of the technical committee for the national plan on traditional architecture. The team also enjoys the help of Jaume Escandell Guasch, cultural heritage specialist of the Formentera Council.

The project, which receives the whole of its €16,500 in funding from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, was adopted by the traditional architecture plan's technical committee after initially being proposed by the region of the Balearic Islands. As Councillor Labrador pointed out, four programmes and courses of action are laid out in the plan. Of those, the fourth deals with “dissemination, transmission and co-operation”.

The Formentera Council convened its August plenary session today. The monthly gathering saw parties mobilising unanimously around a measure to right fire damage done to s'Espalmador island. CiF environment councillor Daisee Aguilera explained that under the initiative, plenary members ask the Govern Balear to dispatch a specialist team to s'Espalmador to assess the damage a recent fire inflicted on the island's plant and animal life.

Two other appeals to the Govern —one urging the drafting of a technical report on potential reforesting measures and another calling for beefed-up summertime surveillance and enforcement of rules at Ses Salines park— were also included in the measure. Aguilera pressed the Palma administration for “a rigorous evaluation of the park's ability to absorb the damage” and “an updated emergency protocol”. Lastly, council members agreed to ask both the Govern and the regional coastal authority to halt current and new permits for maritime excursions to s'Espalmador, citing the need to determine the island's absorption capacity.

More nautical surveillance

The plenary brought unanimous approval for a measure asking the Palma government's local delegation to increase funding for the Eivissa-Formentera Guardia Civil's maritime unit and add a boat —stationed on Formentera— to the force's fleet. According to Councillor Aguilera, the measure will allow for “more stringent control of for-profit recreational water activities” and “ensure that environmental and maritime laws are upheld”.

Expanded course catalogue

In another moment of unity at the plenary meeting, a motion was adopted to expand the catalogue of classes offered at Formentera's school for adults. As education councillor Susana Labrador pointed out, the request entails asking the Govern for funding to reinstate a secondary education degree programme for adults, known as ESPA, as well as preparatory courses to begin high-level technical training.

Members also unanimously adopted a document seeking approval for the dissolution of the Formentera development consortium. Under the terms of an agreement hammered out between the CiF and the Govern Balear, the change will become effective October 15, 2016.

Public health at Can Misses hospital

Another measure adopted at the plenary, although with the abstention from the socialist party, dealt with public health activity in the J building of the former Can Misses hospital. Social welfare councillor Vanessa Parellada called the initiative “an opportunity to offer very important services,” including accommodation on Eivissa for family of hospitalised Formentera residents. Parellada said she hoped a new meeting with the Balearic department of health could provide updated information about the project and signalled her intent to request the project be given priority treatment, calling it “very important for Formentera”. In her words, “this initiative will help us rectify some of the woeful inequalities in healthcare that set Formentera residents apart from their Mallorcan counterparts.”

Gratitude for firefighting efforts

With a unanimous “yes” vote from plenary members, the Formentera Council issued a declaration about the recent wildfire on s'Espalmador island, part of Ses Salines park and reserve. In the document, the Council thanks all the individuals and groups who assisted firefighting efforts early in the morning on Sunday August 15, including Ibanat, Guardia Civil, local civil protection forces, local police and the CiF's firefighting brigade. The document also extends the recognition to all volunteers, known and anonymous, who lent a hand.

Congratulations offered to Mateo Sanz

Another declaration from the CiF that received unanimous approval concerned local athlete Mateo Sanz's participation in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. In the name of the people of Formentera, the document congratulates, thanks and pledges to support Sanz for his unprecedented achievement. The document calls the Formentera native's Olympic run “particularly significant because of Sanz's effort and sportsmanship” and Sanz himself “the greatest model young local athletes could ask for”.