Yesterday Josep Marí, interior councillor of the Consell de Formentera, and Alex Valeiras, head of the fire department, met with Carmen Prats Ferrer, chief of the Eivissa and Formentera delegation of the Balearic Islands Nature Institute (IBANAT), and Miguel Soriano, manager of the Office of Environment, to coordinate the response to the spiking risk of forest fires.

Meeting attendees discussed coordination between IBANAT and the island's fire brigade in preventing forest fires and intervening in other blazes. Councillor Marí urged the public "extreme caution during these dates of high temperatures" and pointed out that fires on forest land are prohibited from 1 May to 15 October.

Formentera's IBANAT brigade is made up of six people and a van, while the Eivissa brigade is composed of two airplanes, which conduct daily patrols, an amphibious plane, helicopter and fire truck. The Consell de Formentera has a team of sixteen firefighters––fifteen professionals and one collaborator––with two fire engines and two pickup trucks. They also carry out daily prevention rides in forest areas.

16 May 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Yesterday Ana Juan, president and entrepreneurship councillor of the Consell de Formentera, signed an agreement to open the coworking room of the local support office for entrepreneurs, Formentera Impulsa, to its first users. The Espai Empresarial will serve as a temporary space for entrepreneurs and new or recent small businesses.

President Juan said that Formentera Impulsa was making the Espai Empresarial available to local entrepreneurs and described it as "a tool to help them develop their activity, boost capacity building and create a space to share experiences and synergies with others". Juan pointed out that the objective of this initiative is "to support people lacking a space to start administrative work and all those who need training, guidance and advice when creating their own company". To that end, she encouraged the Espai Empresarial's first two users, Marcelo Guisado Saceda and Mariam Ben Hamza Shaim Abja, "to take advantage of all the resources that Formentera Impulsa offers entrepreneurs".

Training room
Formentera Impulsa has two training centres that are managed by the Office of Local Development. English classes at the A1 level are currently being held as part of a push by the Employment Office of the Balearic Islands (SOIB) to support territorial projects for vulnerable communities from 2021 to 2023. The ten students currently enrolled will be eligible to take a test through the British Council to obtain a certificate.

Spaces
Located in the former offices of the social welfare department, in the Casal de Entitats, Formentera Impulsa has a workroom with six workstations, a meeting room, reception and waiting areas, toilets, parking and also a training room for the Office of Local Development, which can be used based on availability and where training for entrepreneurs will be given. Companies housed in the Espai Empresarial will have access to the following services: reception and access control, photocopier, computers, furniture, multipurpose room, fibre optic connection and air conditioning. The monthly cost for a desk at the Espai Empresarial is €60.

Formentera Impulsa also has a website, www.formenteraimpulsa.cat, where the public can consult the complete details and services offered.

11 May 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Formentera will have a total of ten polling tables, one more than in 2019, distributed across three polling stations, for the upcoming local and regional elections 28 May. The new polling table is in Es Cap de Barbaria, where a growing population means that the voting district will split in two for these elections. Formentera will have three polling stations: CEIP Mestre Lluís Andreu, the new CEIP Sant Ferran de ses Roques and CEIP El Pilar.

At the last ordinary plenary session of the Consell, councillors selected 330 individuals from electoral rolls to staff the polling tables as presidents, members and alternates. The list has been ratified by the Central Board (Junta Central) and the selected individuals will now be notified.

At the 28 May elections there will be two ballot boxes, one to constitute the Consell de Formentera and the other for the Parliament for the constituency of Formentera. Formentera has 6,876 registered voters living on the island and 486 who are living abroad.

9 May 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

With the onset of the high fire risk season at the start of May, Consell de Formentera firefighters have begun to carry out daily surveillance patrols in forested areas. Josep Marí, interior councillor, has asked islanders and visitors to exercise "the utmost caution and avoid recklessness that, paired with high temperatures, can cause forest fires".

Marí pointed out that there is a ban on fires within 50 metres of forested land from 1 May to 15 October. Fires lit in a 50-to-500-metre radius of forest land require an administrative permit from the Balearic ministry of environment.

The Consell de Formentera fire brigade comprises 15 full-time professional firefighters and one itinerant team member. Please call 112 if you have a fire-related emergency.

5 May 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera