Through a civic action titled “Occupied Until Further Notice,” residents of Bol on Brač gathered on Sunday at Zlatni Rat beach to express their dissatisfaction with the decision made last week by the Split-Dalmatia County Assembly, which granted the Zagreb company “Sport B” d.o.o. a concession for the economic use of that beach.
Several hundred participants in the action wrote a multi-meter message – “Occupied” with beach towels while others surrounded part of Zlatni Rat with their bodies. “With today’s action at Zlatni Rat beach, we symbolically expressed the stance that the local community, namely Bol, should take over the management of this beach,” said the protest organizer Ivana Bošković – Ivičić, director of the Bol Cultural Center. She added that the Youth Initiative of Bol also participated in organizing this action. According to her, most participants in the action were locals from Bol, but they were joined by friends from other places on the island of Brač and from the island of Hvar.
“We will continue our actions, and our first goal is to annul the entire tender process under which the concession for the economic use of Zlatni Rat beach was granted to the Zagreb company ‘Sport B’ d.o.o.,” Bošković-Ivičić stated for Hina. She announced the next protest action for Tuesday, in Supetar on Brač.
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The second goal of the protest activities is to amend the law on maritime property.
“We want the Law on Maritime Property to be amended so that not only Zlatni Rat beach but also the natural treasures throughout the Adriatic are under the authority of local communities,” said Bošković-Ivičić. She stated that support for such intentions is coming from residents and other Croatian islands.
The Split-Dalmatia County Assembly made a decision on Tuesday, after conducting a tender, that starting from January 1, 2018, the concession for managing Zlatni Rat would be granted to the Zagreb company “Sport B” d.o.o. The Bol communal company “Grabov rat” had the concession for the last 12 years. The concession for the company “Sport B” was voted for by 24 councilors from HDZ, HGS, and HČSP, while nine SDP councilors were against, and five abstained.
The concessionaire is expected to pay an annual fee of 1,850,000 kuna and a variable part of 5.4 percent of the revenue generated from activities and services provided in the concession area. The offer from the Bol company “Grabov rat” was declared incomplete. The decision provoked strong reactions from the residents of Bol and the opposition in the County Assembly. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, on Wednesday regarding the decision of the Split-Dalmatia County Assembly to grant the concession for the economic use of Zlatni Rat beach, ordered the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure to urgently conduct administrative supervision.
