Bars and licences

The subscriber who wrote on A Spanish Life, regarding 45 bars and only 30 with opening licences. Over the last five months! individuals, be they bar owners, or members of the public have called the Police more than 70 times? Resulting in Denuncias being issued. In the same period there have been no Denuncias issued in Rojales and Torrevieja. When a Denuncia is issued a copy is sent to Valencia. This has resulted in members of the National Police Autonomica, being sent by Valencia to our little town to check on the licences of all the bars. As has been said before, some bars have been operating without their licence being complete . The Town Hall has been aware of this for some time, but it has been the bars that have put their heads above the parapet and have attracted the attention of Valencia. Many of the Denuncias have come from bars without licences, taking revenge on the other bars who have live music. We the Town Hall have suggested that they stop their inter bar bickering and form a Bar Owners Association, to regulate themselves. We have even offered to help set the Association up. We can categorically state that we have no intention of closing any bars, but if those bars that continually flaunt the law and attract attention to themselves. They can expect further visits from the Autonomical Police, who do have the power to close them down. We have issued guide lines at our meetings with the bars, in order to keep disturbances to the neighbours to a minimum. But if a rival bar complains out of jealousy, then we and the police are duty bound to act on their complaint. I will not say that we will turn a blind eye to music in bars, but if we are unaware that a bar has music on, we will not be hunting them out. I would also say that many bar owners took on bars without doing their homework. They have taken out cheaper licences that are totally inappropriate for the type of business they wish to conduct. Also new owners have been duped by previous owners as to previous requirements issued to them, before they received their opening licence. Now some of the new owners find that they have to have essential work carried out, such as disabled access to toilets, before their opening licence will even be considered. As far as the cost of an opening licence is concerned, the costs vary depending on what type of licence is required. I would be interested to have documentary proof that La Marina village only pays €25. Perhaps that is for a straight forward renewal of a current licence, but I cannot see that it would be as little as that for a new business or a new ownership. Remember even a fruit shop has to apply for an opening licence, you would not expect to pay the same for that as a bar wishing to have live music. On a final note on this subject, the fiesta to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, the August Fiesta and the Rock festival are still on track and will go ahead.