theibizasun
CLOSING TIME
The Town Hall of San José was last week the first administration to approve new legislation on the opening hours of restaurants/bars, and music bars (cafe conciertos) which will now be forced to close by 3.00 o"clock and 5.00 o"clock respectively, an hour earlier than previously. The aim is to regulate the rash of "beach clubs" which have sprung up recently, but the representatives of the three associations whose members would be affected by this move are not in agreement. Pep Colomar, representative of the bars in the West End, Chris Langley from the Bay and Cala de Bou association, and José Ramon Noguera from Playa d"en Bossa explained that the possibility of amendments had been raised last summer, but it was only during February that they had been informed of the definite intention to change the law.
The Town Hall maintain that San José is the first institution, but that all will soon follow suit after an initial agreement was reached at a Mayor's meeting several months ago. However Noguera, amongst others, is not so certain, believing that Ibiza Town will not pass such a law and it will result in parts of Playa d"en Bossa being forced to close an hour earlier and others being permitted to stay open for longer. "Just in the West End there are sixty bars which will be affected and in the Bay and Playa d"en Bossa there must be a similar amount" said Colomar. The closing times of the discotheques will not be altered and will remain 6.30 am, with the three men claiming that the move will be detrimental to smaller businesses. The law is intended to regulate just 10 percent of the night spots (the beach bars), but it will seriously affect all the rest; they maintain that customers tend to stay in the beach bars until midnight while there is music in the open air, and to take a further hour from their businesses would be very damaging.
A further law which was approved last week will now mean that music bars (cafe conciertos) will not be permitted to play music which is audible from the outside of the premises between 12.00 midnight and 4.00 o'clock in the afternoon. Depending on the severity of the infraction and the category of the business, fines of between 1,000€ and 10,000€ will be applicable.
In the same meeting the Town Hall agreed to legalise ticket sellers in the Playa den Bossa area. The sellers/PR's will be allowed in front of the businesses they are promoting, but will also be able to trade/market their business in two streets – calle de la Ruda and calle del Bruc, as well as the junction of the Playa den Bossa road with calle Fumarell. Each business will be allowed a total of three workers in these areas.