A judge has refused to issue an order for night activity to cease at the Alhambra brewery in Granada city, over excess noise complaints.

When Cervezas Alhambra was founded in 1925 it was on the outskirts of the city, far from any residential areas. Since then it has been busily turning out one of the most popular beers in eastern Andalucia.

Since then the city has grown with the result that the City Hall decided to give building permission for blocks of flats on the very doorstep of the factory.

Soon, the neighbours were complaining about the noise to the City Hall and lodging legal suits.

However, a judge has put a spoke in the works of the City Hall and refused to issue an order to stop the machinery. His reasoning? He finds it “hard to explain” how the City Hall could issue first-occupation certificates for flats on the doorstep of a factory.

He was summing up on a lawsuit brought about by neighbours, calling for an end to night-shift activity between 23.00h and 07.00h. He also commented that the factory had already taken measures, which the Junta de Andalucia consider effective.

Finally, he concludes that the factory is not the only responsible party in this affair, indicating that the municipal administration might have erred in so far as giving permission for the flats to be lived in, bearing in mind the minimum requisites established in the Código de Edificación (Building Law).

The affected apartment blocks are government-subsidized housing built by the public company, Empresas Municipal de Viviende y Suelo (Emuvyssa). This entity, says the judge, had possibly “generated problems” for the denounced party (the factory). For this reason the judge refused to act saying that such a closure would have a serious economical impact on the factory.

As long as the factory obeys all existing legislation within its grounds, then it is not breaking the law and furthermore, its activity predates the existence of the housing.

As a final blow to the City Hall, he considers that housing builders might have provided insufficient noise insulation in the construction of the flats, given their location, and that in light of this possible defect, no first-occupation certificate should have been issued by the municipal administration.

(News: Granada, Andalucia – Photo: David Barrachina/http://lacervezaesalegria.blogspot.com.es)