Fingers crossed for Magaluf this summer, let’s hope it’s a good one

THE streets of Mallorca are filling up once again with visitors and we’re seeing the switch from bicycles to hire cars on the roads.
Parts of the island are looking forward to a bumper summer season with full hotels and busy beaches. But there is a big question to be answered for 2015. What is going to happen to or IN Magaluf? Is it going to be another year of disasters, deaths and drunkenness all splashed across the British tabloids. Or can Magaluf start to turn it around and revitalise its image?
This week the bylaws have been changed to enforce a new law about drinking on the streets between 10pm and 8am but it would seem that no one told the authorities as already the resort has been the subject of a Daily Mirror front page story claiming that the police aren’t upholding the new law. Every year I spend at least one evening a week in Magaluf over the summer months and the majority of the time I would say I feel reasonably safe. But there are elements of Magaluf that have to be changed, like the prostitutes who lurk in side roads waiting to relieve their customers of their wallets.
It seems that instead of focusing on this real threat the police prefer to pay attention to the ‘no bikini’ rule on the streets around the beaches. It’s hard to explain to the visitors why they shouldn’t walk around in a bikini or swimming trunks; it’s so hot for a start. Yesterday I heard of a group of lads being fined €500 for not wearing shirts on the street. It’s another type of mugging I guess.
There are some upsides to Magaluf, the investment going into the area is immense. In the past month we have seen the opening of the third season of Nikki Beach, the first season of BH Mallorca hotel complex (which is incredible), and let’s not forget the new Aldi! I think I actually saw more people that I knew in there on its first day than I had in the whole of the previous month.
And there are the Street Angels back on the block looking out for people in trouble in the early hours of the morning at the weekends.
I am hoping to go out with them a couple of times this summer, and they are always open to having more volunteers. Cameron Springthorpe is my contact there and you can see more info at www.streetangels.es or email him on contact@streetangels.es. Keep your fingers crossed for Magaluf this summer; let’s hope the stories coming out of the resort are good ones.
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