Crazy Golf: Too many courses in the Balearics?

Where do you go in Spain to have a quiet round of golf? The Balearics. Whole courses uninhabited by the one thing they should be inhabited with – golfers. Golfers of a local variety that is. Ignoring overseas players, a survey by the information company 11811, reveals that there are fewer registered golfers on the islands, relative to the number of courses, than any other region of Spain. The finding is slightly misleading as a further discovery of the survey is that the number of registered players per head of population is the sixth highest in the country. But what really gives the game away regarding how unused courses are in the Balearics is the fact that there are more courses for each and every resident of the islands than anywhere else in Spain.

The revelation as to the low numbers of golfers is nothing new. In April 2008 a different survey came to the same conclusion. Golf, far from booming, seems to be standing still. Is the relative unpopularity of the sport among residents, however, important in the wider debate surrounding golf courses? Local golfers are really only a sub-plot to the main story of golf tourism, but the fact that they are spread so thinly across the islands’ courses – 387 registered players per course – represents a weakness in the “home” market and raises the question as to whether Mallorca and the islands need more courses.

A year on from that previous survey, the Balearics business confederation (CAEB) issued its own report which stated that as many as five more courses were needed in Mallorca alone. These were courses, it said, that were necessary for the development of golf tourism, and it received support from the then tourism minister Miguel Nadal. The support was not unexpected; Nadal’s party, the Unió Mallorquina, has been cast, alongside the Partido Popular, as the devil of golf expansion by both the left and environmentalists.

The arguments advanced by CAEB for the islands as a whole are those echoed in the endless row regarding the development of the Muro golf course. These are well-rehearsed arguments: higher-value tourists; diversification of the tourism offer; a means of countering tourism seasonality.

The problem with these arguments is that they are just that – arguments. What invariably seems to be lacking is evidence as to what more courses would actually mean in terms of increased tourism. One would hope that a business confederation could be capable of presenting a sound business case in favour of more courses, just as one would hope that the Muro course developers could do the same. If so, then where is it?

Beyond the claims and the prospects of some employment being created, the pro-golf lobby has failed to win hearts and minds by pointing to serious numbers. Were it to, then it might do better in the propaganda war with the anti-golf lobby, bolstered recently by a report from an international organisation (the Ramsar Convention on wetlands) which recommends that Muro should definitely be scrapped because of the environmental impact. Furthermore, it is the no-to-golf side which attempts to come up with figures that dispute the yes-to-golf’s arguments.

In September the environmental watchdog GOB produced what it reckoned was proof that golf does nothing to increase low-season tourism. Based on hotel occupancy figures, it argued that were there golf tourism demand in the likes of Alcúdia or Pollensa then hotels would be open, which with some exceptions they are not. It wasn’t proof because GOB had overlooked non-hotel accommodation and figures from November to March, but it did nevertheless suggest that the quieter months of April and October did not show any real benefit from golf tourism.

Though tenuous, GOB’s findings do deserve some attention, while more rigorous research for the off season would not go amiss. And to these findings, we have to take into account what appears to be the lack of a bedrock of support for golf in the local market. One wonders to what degree, if at all, the apparent unpopularity of golf is a reflection of the environmental case. It would also be interesting to know how many of the registered golfers in the Balearics are foreign residents.

What do local people think about the development of new courses? Are they ever asked? In Muro a flavour of opinion was evident in October last year when townspeople demonstrated against the possible demolition of the bungalows in Ses Casetes des Capellans. One prominent banner read: “A golf course is for the rich. Capellans is worth much more”.

Local demand for golf is only part of the equation, but it cannot be overlooked. If one takes Muro’s course, what might this demand be? Excluding the population of neighbouring Alcúdia, where a course exists, the combined population of Muro and its other neighbours – Santa Margalida, Sa Pobla, Búger and Llubi (where there are no courses) – is around 35,000. Extrapolating from the figures in the latest survey, this would mean a course that might attract 260 registered players. 260 across five towns. It doesn’t sound like much of an argument for building a golf course. You would need an awful lot of golfing tourists to make it work. An awful lot of golfers that no one seems able to put a figure to. Crazy.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Mother Of Development: Muro, Ullal and land policy

The ongoing farce that is the Muro golf development shows no sign of pulling its trousers up from around its ankles and closing or keeping open, once and for all, the bedroom doors through which the two sides chase each other – the developers sniggering as they lay another trap and rile the environment ministry which would most likely prefer to take a horse-whip to the unfaithful miscreants.

The bee-eating bird has flown or has, at any rate, completed its procreation, and the developers have once more sent in the diggers. They’re over there! Where? Over there! In march the agents of the ministry, brandishing an order to stop them. It’s an area of bird protection. On no it isn’t. Oh yes it is. Though the developers dispute the protection area order, they have skulked off, for the time being, leaving the ‘dozers dozing in the summer heat. The government has “paralysed”, for the time being, the clearance work. (Incidentally, given that the bee population is threatened and that its demise would represent an ecological catastrophe, why are we so concerned with this damn bee-eating bird? Let it fly off and nose-bag some worms. But I digress.)

The way in which the developers promptly resumed their developing once the bee-eater had finished its was like a bunch of naughty schoolboys, blowing raspberries at the back of the class while the teacher’s back was turned. Right then, who did that? Not us, sir. Oh yes, it was. And of course it was. The developers have been despatched to the head’s study for six of the best, or would be were anyone sure that they had done anything wrong. They say they haven’t. Perhaps they had thought that the August hiatus would have meant they could plough up great tracts of finca without anyone noticing because they’re all on holiday.

The whole thing is a farce, in the same way as much other land conversion is farcical in that necessity rarely appears to be the mother of development. As I have asked many times, has anyone ever actually made the business case for the course being needed? Environmental issues notwithstanding, the biggest beef of opponents is that the course represents private business interests over all others. It’s the same beef being given a good larding where the projected Ullal development in Puerto Pollensa is concerned. Are the houses and apartments really necessary? Maybe they are. Or maybe they are just a case of private interest prevailing. No one has much objected to Lidl’s supermarket rising up from the asphalt of what was Karting Magic in Puerto Alcúdia, but is it really necessary? Eroski would say not, and are apparently going to close at least one of their supermarkets. All good in terms of competition, but is it the right sort of land conversion?

Ullal, Lidl and others all fall under a general land plan for Mallorca, one overseen by the Council of Mallorca which could, one supposes, still block Ullal, though it seems unlikely as it has, in effect, released the land. The golf development, on the other hand, isn’t a facet of this land plan as it is an issue for the regional government. Which all begs the question as to who is overseeing developments and as to whether there exists sensible, joined-up policy. And talking of sensible, the demolition of the Don Pedro hotel, which is covered by the land plan and which has been approved by the Council (which refers to the hotel’s “infamous invasion” of beach), is supposed, along with the demolition of the Rocamar in Puerto Soller, to lead, in return, to a new hotel being built. Where? In Cala San Vicente? In Puerto Pollensa? In Soller? No. In Sa Rapita. On the southside of the island. Go figure.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Cry Wolf – Muro’s golf course

As sure as night follows day, so GOB objects to the Muro golf course. As sure as yesterday I referred to the payment of the tax being the final obstacle overcome in starting work on the course, so it could have been anticipated that the pressure group would exert some pressure to create a new obstacle. GOB is going back to an agreement in 2001 that effectively grouped the site of the course, the Son Bosc finca, with neighbouring Albufera as a protected area of environmental value, an agreement that was broken by the government of Jaume Matas in 2003. In retracing steps, yet again, GOB is levelling responsibility at President Antich (who was president in 2001) for not having “lifted a finger” to stop the work now going ahead.

Where or when does all this stop? The arguments have been going on for that long that GOB can indeed bring up something nine years old. Look back at maps for Playa de Muro of several years vintage or more, and you are likely to see “Golf” represented; it was there because it had been anticipated, years ago. It is fair enough that developments are no longer just bulldozed into being with disregard to opposing views or to environmental issues, but the bulldozers are soon going to be rumbling over Son Bosc, and there is little that GOB can do about it, short of gaining some sort of injunction. Its main political allies appear to be the Mallorcan socialists (PSM) who are trying to make things tough for the environment ministry (which has given the go-ahead) and which is headed by the Unió Mallorquina. Always the UM, seen as the devils of current scandals and the great devils of more and more golf. The PSM wants the ministry to act “urgently” in preventing the work. It won’t.

It is in the nature of pressure groups which defend nature to object to just about anything, and GOB is no different. It does much that is good, but it creates its own problems by its constant wolf-crying, as does the enviro lobby as a whole which does itself no favours by coming up with ideas that are just plain bonkers, such as giving the coast road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa back to beach and nature. In truth, the biggest environmental battles have probably been lost, just go and look at Can Picafort’s frontline where once there were dunes and forest which served as natural safeguards against sea encroachment. GOB fights the good fight, and its fights can sometimes be justified, but, as ever with single-issue groups with loud voices, how representative is it of the democratic process? It has been said that GOB should front up and join the established political process.

The Muro golf course may be of questionable value in terms of whether it is actually needed, but the environmental issues have been addressed. GOB, and the PSM, should just get over it, and, in GOB’s case, move on to the next battle-ground. The course will be built. Long live the golf course of Muro! (I say that with some irony, as some of you may know from previous postings that I don’t believe there is a case for it – in terms of demand.)

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Chestnuts Roasting – Street cleaning and golf

A couple of old local chestnuts are being given a further roasting: one that has been long on the brazier and remains so, the other we all thought had been thoroughly cooked and eaten. They are – the street cleaning of Pollensa and the golf course in Muro. Yep, one more time for both of them. Here we go …

Pollensa’s street cleaning goes hi-tech
Pollensa town hall is to double its investment on street cleaning, bringing the annual spend up to 800,000 euros. For a cash-strapped and indebted town hall this represents a far from insignificant increase. The latest round of tendering for the cleaning gig is in progress, and so presumably there will be a contractor in place before long that does actually have a contract.

In return for this increased spend, the good people of Pollensa can now expect to be asked their opinions as to the levels of service. Dependent upon satisfaction findings, the new contractor will be subject to variable payments. Low satisfaction and they don’t get so much. Performance payments in other words. How novel. Moreover, the town hall is to introduce a system of real-time monitoring, via satellite positioning technology, of worker activity and frequency of cleaning. And there I was, mentioning the other day the apparently questionable privacy legal issues with webcams. Someone’s going to be watching you, fellas! Now, there’s an idea, add a webcam to the satellite monitoring, and everyone can watch the dog mess being swept up. They could integrate the opinion surveys and make those function in real time as well. Vote now for the chap doing the pinewalk – marks out of ten! One could then also watch the amounts being paid – or not – to the contractor, like a Comic Relief running total, but bearing in mind that investments can go down as well as up.

And finally … finally they’re building the golf course in Muro
Work on the golf course in Muro is due to now start in the next couple of weeks. You might be forgiven for having thought that it had already started and that all the final impediments to the course’s creation had been overcome. Indeed it had been reported, as long ago as 3 September last year, that work was set to begin during September. The delay seems to have had nothing to do with the endless debates about rare orchids and other environmental matters that had so taxed many, mainly the enviro pressure group GOB, but with the payment of a tax, some 170 grand to the town hall. This money, to be coughed up by the developers, was, we were led to believe, meant to have found its way into the emptying coffers of Muro town hall all those months ago, but has only now been handed over. Which does make one ask why there has been such a delay. There again, the debate regarding the building of the course has gone on for that long that a few months more won’t make much of a difference. And no-one will actually be teeing-off in Muro for some time yet. At least two years, possibly longer. Doubtless we can now anticipate beardies prostrating themselves in front of bulldozers in order to protect the orchids. Not that they need to, as the protection of rare flora on the Son Bosc finca is a condition of the development, and the developers have – for the duration of the work – engaged a firm of environmental consultants who will presumably ensure that the environmental conditions are indeed adhered to.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.