Malaga city centre noise prompts court case

RESIDENTS in central Malaga announced that they will sue the town hall because of excessive noise.

Crowded bar and café terraces during the day, inadequately soundproofed music bars and multitudinous “botellon” outdoor drinking sessions at night are at the centre of their protests.

People living in Calle Cister and Calle Alcazabilla have set a precedent by lodging a formal complaint against the Ayuntamiento for its “negligence” in failing to control or disperse thousands of young people drinking in the area during the Feria, especially in the Plaza de la Merced.

On several occasions they were not even able to enter their own homes, they protested.

With the Ayuntamiento unable or unwilling to provide a solution they began legal proceedings against the council and have now been joined by residents from Calle Nosquera.

The situation was intolerable, said Maria Jose Soria, president of the Centro Antiguo residents’ association, who cited every citizen’s constitutional right to rest.

Local politicians had little interest in solving the problem, she said, and pressure from business owners as well as snail’s pace bureaucracy meant complaints were habitually put to one side. Only a third of cases were resolved before legal action was taken.

The recent Feria was the straw that broke the camel’s back, Soria said, although Environment councillor Ana Navarro insisted that bylaws were strictly enforced by her department.

“We do everything within our power,” she said, blaming noise levels on restaurant and bar customers having to go outside if they wanted to smoke.

This was untrue and had no bearing on the problem, residents maintained, which went back much further than the antismoking laws introduced last January.