 Changing Places No 113 W/C 13th April 2008
We live in peace with our neighbours in Soller as we always did in North London before our relocation here. We have never found issues that can’t be solved with a chat and sense of humour in either place. We found that not to be the case with all our friends here when we sat looking out to sea one day putting the world to rights. We were discussing the places we can take dogs for a walk and let them run off the lead. The beach is a no go area in summer and now a notice has appeared beachside saying that dogs are banned on it year round. This was causing consternation amongst the locals who can’t see the sense in that directive. The winter beach is hammered each day and cleaned by waves which wash up to the roadside. The summer and winter beach is a very different place and no one was arguing that dogs should be able to exercise on it from April to October but also no one could see the point of applying that ban in the winter. The rebels decided to express their indignation by ignoring the ban and the very next week there were letters to the local paper denouncing them. That was then followed by a patrol of inspectors with ‘denouncia’ pads ready to write out a ticket for anyone found breaking the by - law. The tempers are running high and this story will run and run, the small town in denouncement mood is not a comfortable place to be.
The wide open spaces of the meadows and mountain sides are not immune from the dreaded denouncia either. The story of the beautiful peacocks that make me laugh when I walk past them because they seem so out of place here is another ‘hard edged’ local news story. Their poo smells awful, they are incredible noisy and are very active at night which means that you can hear their piercingly loud screeches any time. They are now the subject of a series of complaints and no matter that they please when they open their beautiful tails they are in big trouble. The war of words on this subject gets louder and louder because the peacock fans complain that no-one in Majorca should dare complain about the birds because of the terrible noise the rest of us put up with from the barking dogs of the area. This valley has choir of barking dogs ready to give voice at any time of the night
When our company Sun Search Recruitment found its offices in the Port of Soller we went through the official channels to be registered as an SL company (similar to a Limited Company in England). We had all our official papers and registered our intention to operate from our wonderful location. We soon learnt that there was a gauntlet of denouncia to run before we could be classed as official. An opening licence had to be obtained which necessitated appointing an engineer to measure the premises, draw us a pretty diagram to tell us where to install emergency lights and fire extinguishers and register all this with the Town Hall before we could officially start trading. All concerned knew that from start to finish this procedure would take a year. To trade before that was possible as long as we kept a very low profile and didn’t do anything to get ourselves ‘denounced’. We were told that competition was always looking for ways to use a denouncia to interrupt trading to give themselves the advantage. How very strange, all this is in a country that prides itself on its ‘live and let live’ culture. The day our opening licence arrived it was framed and now has pride of place on our company wall – the fear of being reported for this particular transgression has passed!
Most of our clients are great; they enjoy our professional recruitment service and pay their bills on time. They have read the terms and conditions that we send out with the booking form and know exactly what is expected. That is all except one or two and they are the ones that we have had to take advice on. The legal advice on debt collecting is all pretty standard but the news to me was the use of ‘The Denouncia’. We are told that we should publish on our web site the names and addresses of companies that do not pay their bills – denounce them – in other words. Oh dear – just when I thought everything could be solved with a cup of tea and a chat.
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