Some 400 establishments in Palma operating illegally

PALMA
SOME 400 establishments which are open to the public in Palma do not have the appropriate licence or documentation to make their business legal and half of them have operated like this for two years, according to the deputy mayor of the Planning department, Javier Rodrigo de Santos.

He was speaking at the presentation of a new municipal guide to the retail trade in Palma, and emphasised the intense work which the Activities department had done during this time to make sure the establishments complied with the law. He said that his department had increased its workload by 200 percent, which “had allowed them to make half of the 800 establishments which do not have a licence (some 40 percent of the total) comply with the law”. Also at the presentation of the guide were the councillor for Labour, Economy and Commerce and President of Imfof, Sebastia Sanso, the President of IBI Commercio, Pere Pau Mesquida, and the President of PIMECO, Pere Ferrer, who all agreed on the “useful and practical” nature of the guide, of which 4'000 copies have been produced in Spanish and Catalan, half of them on paper and the rest on an interactive CD, which will be distributed through the members of PIMECO (small and medium sized commercial enterprises).

For his part, Sanso explained that the guide, which was produced with a budget of 69'000 euros, is made up of “photographs of the commercial reality of Palma, which is lively and changing”.

He added that, because of this, the guide will only be valid for this year and he hoped that contributions from businesses in the city would improve.
Rodrigo de Santos explained that the small and medium sized companies in the commercial sector “generally” comply with the current laws, although he admitted having found problems in the segment of establishments which offer public communications, such as the internet, and said that the problems are currently being resolved.

On the other hand, he said he considered that bars and leisure places and, in smaller measure, restaurants, are those which mostly fail to comply with the current laws and have more problems in doing so.

In this respect, the deputy mayor referred especially to the establishments situated on the Playa de Palma.
He said that these, in many cases, infringe the laws on opening hours, noise and other social aspects, and said that he would continue the “intense” pressure from the council to make them comply as soon as possible.