While welcoming tourists Costa Blanca mayors agree that Benidorm isn’t Bournemouth and  beach-capacity will be controlled

IF Benidorm isn’t Bournemouth, nor is Denia, Javea, Moraira or any other Costa Blanca municipality offering sun, sand and sea.

It is inconceivable that the scenario where 500,000 sunseekers descended on Bournemouth could be repeated here.

Tourists – Spanish, British or any other nationality permitted to travel without quarantine – can once again flock to Spain’s beaches.

But town halls here are not ineffectual local councils.  They are local governments with political and public safety clout.

Benidorm’s Beach Safety Plan with its cordoned-off plots received as much publicity in the UK as it did in Spain.

Formulas differ but every Costa Blanca town hall knows how many people can safely occupy their sands. And, reading the press releases they send the Euro Weekly News, they intend to keep their beaches safe.

As tourists began arriving, Denia’s mayor Vicent Grimalt recently visited Les Rotes where beaches and coves soon reached their quotas of occupants.

Like his counterparts along the coast, Grimalt called on the public to behave sensibly.

“Unless beachgoers maintain social distancing and take notice of controls we will have no option but to call the police,” the mayor warned.

Jose Chulvi, mayor of neighbouring Javea, pointed out that the town hall has controlled numbers on the Granadella and Portitxol beaches for the last four years.

Despite the inevitable pressure on both coves there was plenty of space on Javea’s other beaches where sunseekers could enjoy the sea and sand and still keep their distance from others, Chulvi said.

“Fortunately we have many kilometres of coastline,” the mayors agreed.