Dimitris Kouimtsidis
A TOTAL of 103 streets have been forbidden to open new hospitality businesses for the next five years.
Malaga City Council will not grant any licenses on streets including Calle de Sanchez Pastor, Calle Caldereria and Calle Angel which collectively between house 34 bars, restaurants and hotels.
The streets that have been included in the ban are all considered to have high levels of noise pollution.
Noise levels in the affected areas exceed 55 decibels during the night and 65 in the daytime, with some places even reaching as high as 90.
Oscar Argudo, a resident of the area said, ‘rest is impossible.’
Not everyone is pleased with this new measure however.
Javier de Frutos, president of the Malaga Association of Hoteliers, described the consequences as ‘unpredictable’.
He said: “It’s an intervention into the free market in a key area of the city.”
Hoteliers are worried that jobs will be lost and that tourists will have a bad image of the city centre.
There are other measures introduced to counter noise pollution levels.
Restaurant windows and doors must be closed after 11pm regardless of whether any music is being played or not.
In addition, on the days from Sunday to Thursday, terraces will now close half an hour earlier at 12:30am, instead of 1am, and one hour earlier on Saturdays at 1am, instead of 2am.
