Almuñécar Town Hall has decided to follow Motril’s example and allow bar/restaurant terraces on public land to increase in area.

At the same time the annual licence fee for occupying this space will be waivered this year; i.e., more space and zero cost.

The idea is to allow an establishment to increase the amount of tables without surpassing the 50% limit. In other words, let’s say a terrace contained 10 tables, then 50% would mean only five tables to run a business on. If, however, the establishment is allowed to increase the occupied area to allow for 16 tables, the 50% would mean that they have eight tables – only two short of what they originally had.

The plan is for establishments to be able to put up the original amount of tables without infringing the 50% but that depends on whether there is physical space to extend out onto, obviously.

In March the Town Hall announced that they would suspend the terrace tax whilst the State of Alarm persists, but owing to the understandable uncertainties coming to the fore since then, they have decided to extend the suspension until the 31st of December; i.e., the rest of the year.

“There are some 150 establishments that will benefit from this measure,” explained the Councillor Caballero, adding that it will create a strain on the municipal coffers as the Town Hall receives around 160,000 euro in the form of this tax each year. This loss will be balanced by taking it out of the budget for fiestas.

The Councillor said that shortly the establishments will be informed of how to apply for this terrace extension.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)