The Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Housing and Strategic Projects, Óscar Fidalgo, announced after Tuesday’s meeting of the Council of Urban Planning Management that the area of Building Discipline and Safety has agreed to immediately suspend the works that have been carried out on the Es Baluard walls, and has also opened disciplinary proceedings against the company responsible for these urban planning irregularities. Urbanisme considers these unauthorised actions to be “manifestly illegal” and is open to the imposition of coercive sanctions.

Fidalgo explained that “a municipal architect recently visited the works and during the inspection he was able to confirm that unauthorised actions had been carried out on the terrace next to the Es Baluard Museum restaurant. These irregularities include the construction of walls and sections that were not marked in the project. The walls also do not coincide with the elevation of the sections, which reach a height of up to 130 centimetres”.

In addition, as the deputy mayor explained, “it has also been possible to verify the existence of planters not shown on the plans, the construction of walls of ceramic billet to support the decking where it was planned to install supporting plots and, finally, the ground behind the water mirror structure is perforated and pipes have been introduced into the subsoil”.

All these irregularities mean that the work, according to the councillor, is “manifestly illegal, which is why the immediate suspension of the work has been ordered”, while at the same time the process of urban planning discipline is being initiated to re-establish the legality in force. Urbanisme reminds that the company has been granted a period of 15 days to make any allegations it deems appropriate, warning that failure to comply with this order will lead to “the imposition of different coercive fines every 10 days”.

Óscar Fidalgo indicated that the penalties, which have not yet been quantified, could be considerable “as the illegal works were being carried out in a protected BIC area”.