Costas is willing to authorise a renewal of the Aquatropic licence, but not with the disco included, which will come as a relief for the neighbours up in Los Pinos that overlooks the water park.
On the 10th of July, Costa gave a time limit of three months for the Town Hall to present a new project, without the nightclub-cum-discotheque, which is not permitted so close to the sea. Anybody who might have walked behind the water park will have seen that the back of the discotheque is about one metre – the width of the footpath – from the seashore rocks.
In fact, it has long annoyed chiringuito owners that their future existence has been put through the grinder of bureaucratic hell, because they are about 20 metres from the seashore, whilst the water parks sits, apparently, unaffected. There is also the case of the first blocks along Velilla losing their swimming pool, because it was on hitherto public land, yet the water park was allowed to stay, despite it being literally lapped by the waves.
The trouble is that Aquatrópic makes as much money with Aquanoche, as the night bar is called, as it does on the water park daytime attractions, so this would be a huge financial blow to the owners.
The Secretaria General del Mar said that they should take into account the complaints received by neighbours concerning the ‘macro-disco’ that has evolved from the music bar that was originally authorised.
Amusing, perhaps, in the last project offered to the relevant authorities by the Town Hall they described the macro-disco as a ‘civic and cultural centre of multiple uses.’ Strangely enough the Town Hall is not so generous when it is a small bar in town making a noise. Then again, some say that as one of the chief associates of the water park is a close supporter of the Mayor, a certain amount of ‘understanding’ is applied. Who knows?
But the fact is that the Ministry for the Environment, to which Costas belongs, is not buying the ‘civic centre’ number, not only because of the noise and disturbance caused by Aquanoche, but also because such an establishment bears no relation to what is a water park.
So, while the Ministry sees it as perfectly reasonable for the water park to provide toilets, changing rooms and even a restaurant, it does not even want to hear of a night bar.
Does this mean that the building where the discotheque is housed will be demolished? No, it just means that it will have to be adapted to the sort of installations that a daytime water park might need for its users.