The Granada municipal police continue on their crack down against bars and restaurants that were allowed to extend their terraces to counterbalance restrictions.

Recently the police either physically removed the outside terrace seating or fined 19 premises, mainly on Calle Ganivet, Calle Moras,  Calle Pedro Antonio de Alarcón and Calle Elvira.

This strategy commenced in October along Calle Moras and many establishment owners hoped that it would all end in fines and localised to that area.

What had motivated the City Hall into carrying out this kind of action was the number of complaints from residents along these streets about the noises coming from below.These residents even went as far as to hang white sheets from their balconies as a sign of protest.

The white-sheet protest extended along the very popular night-life area of Pedro Antonio de Alarcón because of the noise and not being able to move along the pavements as many were virtually occupied.

Normally the City Hall tries to juggle residents being able to get a night’s sleep with the needs of the hostelry sector, so when it gets out of kilt, they send in the municipal police to whistle up some respect.

The normal remedy is for them to fine a bar or restaurant but not deprive them of their outside seating but when warnings and fines are not enough – which it has not been for some – then the terrace table gets confiscated and loaded onto the back of a lorry belonging to the municipal fleet. This was the case for the majority of the above mentioned 19 premises ‘visited.’

Finally, it is not only a case of terraces over extending onto public right of way, but in four cases of establishments not even having a licence to erect an outside terrace.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)