The Consell d'Eivissa will carry out a «progressive» application of the rule that will limit from 2025 the entry of vehicles to Ibiza. It is an initiative «based on data and not on ideologies» and that will begin to be applied «partially, seeing how the system works and if we have to polish it», said yesterday from the institution.
«We pledged to have a standard approved for next year and we are fulfilling the roadmap, with a law made from Ibiza. This demonstrates the will of this Consell», considered the insular vice-president Mariano Juan, who did not rule out that this rule comes into force before June 2025, and may even be ready by the end of this year, although it would not begin to apply until the next high season.
«It is not enough to have the law approved, but it is necessary to do a previous work of management», he insisted.
The Commission of Territorial Planning, Housing, Mobility, Sea and Water Cycle of the Balearic Parliament voted on Wednesday the last amendments to the opinion of the bill to control the influx of vehicles on the island of Ibiza for tourism sustainability. This is the previous step for the text to reach the plenary of the Parliament, presumably next October 29. Among the amendments approved, is the obligation that this limitation applies from June 2025.
As announced, the regulation will firstly focus on caravans and fleets of rental vehicles, so from now on it will be necessary to work on defining the quotas, according to Juan. «We could not even work on the quotas until we had a law that enabled us to do this type of thing. We are designing the computer systems and the coordination we will have to have with the island's town halls,» said Juan.
In this sense, he recalled that it will be the town halls who, through their local police, will have to control the parking of caravans in certain areas of the municipality.
During Wednesday's debate, the need for this law was insisted, recalling that in the last four years the number of vehicles in Ibiza has increased by 34%, from 112,000 to more than 150,000, while the entry of vehicles to the island in the months of July and August has grown by 50%.
On the collection of fees by shipping companies, Juan recalled that «it has been considered the most effective and quickest way to enforce the law, since they are also those who profit from this type of traffic». This newspaper tried yesterday without success to contact the Employers Association of Maritime Activities (Apeam) to know their opinion on the matter.
Mobility Consortium
The text of the new regulation will establish that the shipping companies will be the ones who will have to collect the fee that vehicles will pay to enter Ibiza and will also have the obligation to communicate «in real time» through a computer platform the license plates of all vehicles entering or leaving the island. On the other hand, caravans and motorhomes will have the obligation to present a reservation in one of the campsites on the island to disembark.
The regulation of the entry of vehicles to Ibiza will be managed by a mobility consortium of which the Consell d'Eivissa and the Govern will be part, as well as other institutions that want to join it. As long as this consortium is not created, the Consell will be in charge of managing this regulation.