News

Fundació Tony Manero and DJ Miguelito captain New Year's fest in Formentera

Tuesday, 29 December 2015 16:13

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There will be no short supply of music as Formentera residents close out 2015. The New Year's Eve concert bash will be headed by Fundació Tony Manero as the group turns Formentera into a stop on its Superficial Tour. Starting at 1 am, the Fundació will take to the stage in the festivities tent in Sant Ferran. DJ Miguelito Superstar will then take the reins and finish out the show. The ensemble event is an unbeatable opportunity for anyone interested in the historic (and now in its 20th year) disco-funk operation.

Crowning what had been a total experience in imaginative songwriting, the members of Pandilleros spent the next five years constructing parallel universes (Los Fulanos, Chocadelia Internacional, Cardova) and dabbling in projects that were both publicly- and critically-acclaimed (Banda Achilifunk, TheExcitements, Hypnotic). Now, Miguelito Superstar and Lalo López unite disco-funk heroes and Spain's black music pioneers into the Fundació Tony Manero. Their goal? Hatch a follow-up to accompany the group as it treads a path from bass drums to roots music and straight back home to the dance floor.

With SUPERFICIAL the members of Manero harbour zero pretences; the goal of the album is to get listeners dancing. The group pledges unequivocal allegiance to the sacrosanct values of party and music. In so doing, they float past disco and electrofunk, gravitate between the analog seventies and digital eighties that followed. As all the great funk-soul soloists and groups before them, Manero finds evolution by forcing a clash of the seventies and eighties and then reaping in the rewards. The composition of the ten-track disc varies from acid synthesisers and digital pianos to primitive drum machines and so-sharp-they-cut riffs on wind instruments. With the typical touches from singers Miguelito and Paquito Sex Machine, all of it just oozes Manero.

Back on their home turf (the dance floor), Fundació Tony Manero has got a somewhat tweaked line-up. The old crew – Paco “Mantecao” Manzanares on keyboards, Deliciosa Smith on bass, Ginés Brown on saxophone, Tom Johnson on trombone, Paquito and Miguelito on vocals and Lalo López on guitars – is joined by the magnificent drummer Marc Benaiges and Marçal “Sweet Lips” Borràs on trumpet, fresh blood that will pump the Manero family forward on this next portion of their twenty-year journey.

Where: Sant Ferran
When: 1 am on New Year's Eve

For more information contact Music bus at 93 320 82 92

Servei de comunicació
Consell de Formentera

Jaume Ferrer and Silvia Tur show appreciation to Parlament for “taking Formentera into account” with recent budgets

Wednesday, 23 December 2015 21:42

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CiF president Jaume Ferrer and Deputy Silvia Tur have issued their first joint valuation of the recent approval, by the Balearic Parlament, of the autonomous community's 2016 budget.

The two officials agreed Parlament's new ledger includes consideration for the island of Formentera and improvements upon the version initially presented in November.

On the trip to Palma Ferrer was also joined by Formentera's councillor of the presidential cabinet, Bartomeu Escandell. In addition to backing up Deputy Tur, the two men attended the debates and votes held on the matter.

Ferrer congratulated Tur on striking a balance between her work for both the Formentera Council and Balearic Parlament, as well as “her ability to ensure improvements to the proposed budgets, whose initial renderings were unsatisfactory”.

For her part, Tur heralded what she called “support for the issues Formentera puts forward” and “a will to engage in dialogue” on the part of the Govern's component political parties and Podemos. “The ensemble has made the completion of all our essential targets – indeed, the establishment of the 2016 pact – possible”.

Tur said next year's budgets are underpinned by an understanding of basic social necessities and assistance that holds true to the Govern's promises at the start of this legislative sitting”.

Sant Ferran school

According to Ferrer, the definitive version of the budget contains improvements to the draft originally brought to Formentera on 9 November by the regional minister of the tax office and public administrations, Catalina Cladera, director general of budgets and financing, Joan Carrió.

Ferrer added: “We were grateful to the Govern for coming to the island and explaining the proposed budgets - something the Partido Popular (PP), over the course of last legislative session, had never done. We also showed our appreciation for the Govern's efforts at finally making the new Sant Ferran school a reality. [The Govern] has included a €2.8-million budget line and plans to include another in 2017, putting their total financial commitment for the project at €3.7 million”.

But the Sant Ferran school was not the only basic financing concern that Ferrer remembers voicing on that day.

Improving waste management, tourism and transport

Ferrer points out that from the Palma representatives' November visit to today, “valuable work” between the Formentera Council and the island's deputy Tur has meant real improvements (including an additional €680,000 in funding) to the initially-floated version of the budget.

Take, for instance, the increase in Formentera's endowment for interisland waste transfer from €300,000 to €550,000. Ferrer holds fast, nevertheless, on Formentera's request that the Govern ultimately assume 100% of the costs, stating: “It is unfair that Formentera residents should have to shoulder transport costs”.

And then there is tourism, on which the Council and Councillor Alejandra Ferrer still hope to sign an agreement that will provide “fair and sufficient” funding to back the transfer of tourism promotions from the Govern Balear to the local island councils. The 2016 budget stipulates the Agència de Turisme Balear provide €300,000 to Formentera to help cover the Council's expenditures in tourism. Meanwhile, Deputy Tur reminded that in four years of the Bauzà government not one euro was put forth for this important issue.

The deputy also praised the fact next year's budget includes €60,000 to unblock the start of operations at Formentera's irrigation pond as well as a €70,000 line item to go toward transport.

President Ferrer and Deputy Tur indicated that after the holidays a press conference would be held locally to explain the Balearic community's 2016 budget in detail.

Decision to slash metred parking pay period fuelled by resident requests, officials say

Friday, 18 December 2015 15:26

Ple desembre 2015 premsa The Formentera Council convened officials and party representatives for the administration's final plenary assembly of 2015. The session was marked by the announcement that definitive approval had been secured for the administration's 2016 budget and of a deal reached by the cabinet committee concerning 12 comments on legislation behind a tax on holiday rentals. Tourism secretary Alejandra Ferrer said the administration would support the measure “as a means to an end to benefit a clear cause, namely the environment”.

The assembly approved the early stage of a plan to tweak the regulatory tax code related to vehicle parking in La Savina, plus a revamping of the regulatory by-law defining the town's parking services. The two proposals won backing from every group save for abstaining Partido Popular representatives. Mobility secretary Rafael González outlined the central features of the planned changes and, in response to requests from the La Savina neighbourhood association and representatives of area businesses, highlighted a rollback in the pay-to-park system's summer hours (metred service will be in effect 9.00am—9.00pm instead of until midnight), explaining that “no parking issues arose during that part of the evening”.

The other important change González pointed to was the creation of parking plans for €200 a month in summer and €100/month in winter. For full-time Formentera residents that amount will be fully refundable and for home-owners or renters in La Savina who stay on the island for more than three months yearly, it will be half off. González explained islanders could expect to see a phase-out of free parking decals as “controls will henceforth be conducted directly via parking metres”.

Individuals with reduced mobility will be exempt and not required to obtain a parking pass. The secretary also highlighted efforts currently under way to find an overflow lot where motorists could park a maximum of five days in a row. Representatives of PSOE and Compromís praised the metred parking system's inaugural year. PP representatives, for their part, criticised what they called “changes which were rushed through”.

The session also ended in unanimous support for the proposed creation of a regulation concerning volunteers for sporting events. Two PSOE measures that got cross-party support involved the implementation of renewable energy systems in Council buildings and an appeal to the central government in Madrid to protect the right to housing.

Figs star of new Formentera calendars

Wednesday, 23 December 2015 21:40

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The Formentera Island Council (CiF) office of Servei d'Assessorament Lingüístic (linguistic advisory service) together with the local department rural affairs, livestock, fishing and hunting have published a new set of calendars for the 2016 year.

Past editions of the calendars focused on terminology for fishing tackle or traditional tools used to work the land. This year, each of the twelve months showcases one of twelve local varieties of figs.

In this way, the calendar features well-known varieties such as rojal, blanca, coll de dama, martinenca and bordissot. Each page of the calendar includes an image of the fig and notes on its particular qualities.

Furthermore, the calendar comes with other vocabulary related to the darling of local fruit. As every year, calendars are available at different CiF points of information across the island.

Disability assessments now possible on Formentera

Wednesday, 16 December 2015 21:07

Foto valoracio grau discapacitat premsa Yesterday, the Govern Balear staff specialists in charge of assessing degrees of discapacity visited the Formentera day centre. Vicent Verdera, an 84 year old Formentera-native, was the first patient the workers met with. According to Mr Verdera’s daughter, Pepita, though almost two years have gone by since doctors amputated her father’s leg, architectural barriers have meant Mr Verdera has been unable to make the trip to Eivissa to have his disability assessed. The Verderas were not alone. Two other patients at the day centre also benefitted from the visit by the employees of the Govern. Other specialists – a doctor, a psychologist and a social worker – are also available to come to Formentera upon request, thus sparing residents trips to Eivissa, explained Vanessa Parellada, head of Formentera’s office of social welfare.

Until now, Formentera residents who needed the degree of their disability assessed were required to schedule an appointment and travel to Eivissa, «with all the inconveniences that came along with it», added Councillor Parellada. «We proposed a possible solution to the regional minister of social services – Fina Santiago – and she accepted», said Parellada, pointing out that the Govern was itself eager to ensure social services were within the reach of Formentera residents.

The Council pays for the specialists’ travel costs to the Formentera day centre, where they have access to a work space. Interested individuals, Parellada concluded by saying, can contact the social services office of Formentera – or Eivissa – for more information or to request a local visit by one of the available specialists.