Bar battle continues in Alicante’s ‘tardeo’ district

THE battle between businesses and residents in the ‘tardeo’ entertainment area of Alicante City continues despite the new mayor’s bid to ease tense relations.
Mayor Gabriel Echavarri pledged to improve relationships between bar and restaurant owners and those residents affected by noise.
This week entrepreneurs and workers are calling on the mayor to mediate a meeting between them and the councillor for Planning, Miguel Angel Pavon, to ensure they still have regular police patrols in the area and to ensure their terrace spaces can remain.
The Provincial Association of Hotel, Dining and Entertainment, of which over 100 establishments belong, claim that the Urbanism and Planning department has halted all night patrols and prevented the use of terraces, even of those with favourable technical reports, with businesses claiming the industry is being “irrationally harassed.”
They are calling for the meeting with Councillor Pavon and the mayor because: “We want to explain the situation. We are working and respect the neighbours; the hoteliers do not to see fights on the street or drunken brawls any more than they do.”
Meanwhile, residents in the area are putting pressure on the council to limit the opening hours of bars and restaurants to 11pm in the winter and midnight in the summer. They are also calling on the council to freeze any new licence for hospitality businesses.