The Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises of Ibiza and Formentera (Pimeef) has reiterated its demand to the municipalities of the island to expand the available industrial land and enable parking spaces for heavy vehicles. The president of the employers’ association, Alfonso Rojo, warns that the current situation causes daily collapses in industrial parks, especially during the summer months.
Daily saturation in the polygons
Rojo gives as an example the Montecristo industrial estate, where every morning, in the middle of the tourist season, up to 50 trailers are concentrated, generating traffic jams that sometimes reach the accesses to the city of Ibiza. The trucks, he explains, disembark at the port early in the morning, unload the goods and do not have adequate space to wait before boarding again, which contributes to the collapse of the main roads.
A similar situation is experienced in the polygon of Can Bufí, whose urban cataloging is outdated, preventing its formal recognition as an industrial zone. “Day to day life in Can Bufí is an odyssey,” assures the president of Pimeef to Radio Ibiza, “because the businessmen who work there lose time and money due to the lack of adequate infrastructure.”
Lack of land and urban planning rigidity
The employers’ association insists that the shortage of industrial land is one of the main obstacles to the island’s economic development. Rojo proposes to make urban planning regulations more flexible so that companies can use basements as parking or storage spaces and build in height, measures that, in his opinion, would partially alleviate the lack of space.
The business leader stresses that industrial activity in Ibiza moves between 250 and 300 transport platforms per day, which makes it essential to have areas prepared for parking and loading. “It is not only a question of facilitating logistics,” Rojo explains, “but also of organizing traffic, improving mobility and guaranteeing road safety at the accesses to the industrial estates.”
A recurring claim
Pimeef recalls that this claim is not new, but that every year the saturation worsens, especially during the high season, when the demand for supplies increases. Entrepreneurs insist that without planning and without sufficient industrial land, the local economy faces a structural problem that slows competitiveness and hinders the activity of small and medium enterprises.
Rojo concludes that the sector needs a coordinated response from the local and regional administrations, which will allow to organize business growth and provide adequate services to the industrial areas of Ibiza.
