The irregular swimming pools of the Torrevella agrotourism, owned by the French firm Les Domaines de Fontenille, which have finally been legalized through a license granted by the Alaior City Council, are not the only example of alleged deception of the Administration by a developer hotel in Menorca. A few days after it became known that this license – intended, according to environmentalists, to whiten what were “water cisterns” and are actually private swimming pools – will allow the developers to escape a fine of 1.5 million euros, has jumped a new case of alleged illegal swimming pools. In the same municipality, the Menorca Experimental hotel has been denounced by the environmental entity GOB Menorca for keeping nine swimming pools in operation that were not declared in the original project.
After receiving the complaint from the environmental group, the Urban Discipline Consortium of the Consell Insular has opened a sanctioning file against the development company, although the organization has not detailed the amount of the fine. elDiario.es has tried to contact the hotel, but has not yet received a response.
According to environmentalists, this new violation of territorial planning is already a “modus operandi” of the developers that offer hotel services in the Menorcan countryside. Curiously, both cases occur in Alaior, the municipality with the largest number of agrotourisms in Menorca. “The case of these nine illegal swimming pools discovered in the Sant Llorenç agrotourism is added to the already well-known case of the seven swimming pools in Torrevella. The great similarity between both examples seems to show the same way of operating to avoid, with deception, environmental processing,” the GOB comments.
On the other hand, environmentalists insist that both agritourisms managed to approve their respective Environmental Impact Studies (EIA) in the presentation phase of their respective preliminary projects and that, finally, they have resulted in deception of the administration. “The two hotels mentioned passed the EIA and, in both cases, proposed the provision of tanks (swimming pools) or ponds to collect rainwater or treated water. In the end, they have made swimming pools that are openly promoted on the digital portals of the respective companies,” they stressed. Finally, Miquel Camps, territorial coordinator of the GOB, tells elDiario.es that, given the similarities of both companies in relation to the swimming pools, “it would be good to investigate what coincidences can be found in the technical teams that have accompanied both procedures.” .
An element that seems to have facilitated this “modus operandi” is the disappearance of the Medi Ambient Commission of the Balearic Government, which ceased to exist last May by decision of the regional Executive led by Margalida Prohens (PP). “In the absence of such an organization, it becomes more difficult to track the development of urban projects that have an impact on the rural land of Menorca,” the GOB points out.
Environmentalists also highlight the fact that the Menorca Experimental hotel project achieved the approval of the Medi Ambient Commission before the final ratification of the Island Territorial Plan (voted by the Island Consell in 2023) – regulations that allow for a maximum of one swimming pool. per plot—precisely because, “on paper,” the development would have a single 233m2 pool. “However, in the aerial photographs it is observed that nine other pools have been added, smaller in size, but that together they come to at least double the large original planned pool,” they emphasize.
Given the existing precedents with the Torrevella agrotourism case, the municipal group Avançam Alaior, opposed to the government team led by Juan Luis Benejam (PP), does not rule out that the company responsible for the Experimental Menorca hotel will also benefit from a license that allows undeclared swimming pools to be legalized. “We have no doubt that what they already did with the Torrevella agrotourism can be repeated, which is nothing more than à la carte urban planning at the stroke of a checkbook, because here there are people who place themselves above the law just because they have money and the PP of Alaior accompanies and rewards them,” said councilor Isa Allès in dialogue with elDiario.es.
Luxury for 413 euros per night
Experimental Menorca belongs to the Experimental firm, a hotel business holding company founded by three French citizens who present themselves on their website as “passionate fans of the craft cocktail culture of New York and London” and who decided to “change the face of the streets of Paris” after opening his “Experimental Cocktail Club” in 2007.
This luxury hotel, which has 4 stars and offers “luxurious spa” and “infinity pool” services, is located a few meters from Cala Llucalari, an area that used to be property of the Ministry of Defense and that now welcomes tourists who They seek to try, as they announce on their website, “the Menorcan lifestyle.” Of course, a style projected by the famous French designer Dorothée Meilizchon, who was in charge of outlining the hotel’s decoration.
Although they were already reported to the Urban Discipline Consortium, Experimental Menorca maintains its offer public, where they propose visitors to stay in any of the “43 hotel rooms, 9 of them with their own pool” where guests can choose between “swim laps in the infinity pool or a secluded retreat of your own.” Prices range between 260 and 413 euros per night.
The hotel costs between 260 and 413 euros per night. Guests can choose between ‘swimming laps in the infinity pool or a secluded retreat of their own’
However, the three French businessmen insist that their vision of hospitality is based on “small producers and seasonal supply, whether in food, spirits or wine” that they offer in their hotels. Despite elDiario.es’ attempts to contact them to ask about the nine pools that drain the municipality of Alaior of water and that were not declared in their original project according to environmentalists, this newspaper has not yet received a response.
Torrevella is at risk of losing his license
If the modus operandi denounced by environmental groups in Menorca is real, Torrevella could be the first of several attempts to legalize swimming pools originally declared off-plan as cisterns. On an island with strong problems of access to drinking water and with great social tension in everything related to the care of the territory and the environment, what happened with this hotel has aroused the indignation of some neighbors.
To calm the waters and after remaining silent for several weeks, the PP of Alaior has issued a statement explaining that the granting of the licenses is due “exclusively to technical and subjective criteria” and that at all times it has acted in accordance with “ the reports issued by the competent bodies in a clear and transparent process, based on reports that prove that the project complies with urban planning and environmental regulations.”
For its part, Avançam Alaior has filed an appeal to demonstrate that this license is “null and void” for several reasons and request the denial of the license. “On the one hand, there are several municipal reports that indicate that the documentation of the file for legalization was not complete when the Island Territorial Plan had been initially approved nor later, once ratified in 2023, a review that is even more restrictive with respect to the installation of swimming pools,” Allès explained to this medium.
“And finally, the declaration of general interest that the Consell Insular granted to this project in 2018 should be reviewed, since they raised a proposal that was ultimately not made, so a new declaration should be requested. Nor has the declaration of environmental interest granted by the defunct Environment Commission been renewed, which also falls because it was granted to build eight cisterns, not eight swimming pools,” the councilor emphasized.
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