Esteban Camps, vice-president of the Sant Agustí and Cala Major Neighbours Association estimates that space for sunlounger concessions on Cala Major beach have increased by more than twenty percent over the past five years. “The beach now seems like its private.”
The association says that residents have had serious problems trying to finding a space to place their towels this summer. According to its calculations, only 22% of the beach is free space. The remaining 78% is taken up by sunlounger and parasol sets, beach bars, lifeguard stations, showers and storage.
It will be writing to Palma Town Hall to complain about the excessive occupation by the different services, especially the sunloungers, and to also demand a new tender process for next year. The company with the contract obtained a special extension this summer.
Camps points out that while the space for services has been increasing, the beach itself has been receding because of storms and a rise in sea level. “It is reduced year after year due to erosion. Beach is being lost.”
Prices aren’t exactly popular either. For a set of two sunloungers and one parasol, the hire charge is 25.30 euros a day. Then there is the premium zone, about which there was a fuss early in the season; a set in this zone costs 70 euros a day.
