Palma de Majorca. Residents living near late night businesses with outdoor terraces want closing time to be brought forward so noise doesn't affect their rest. Meanwhile, hard pressed bar, café and restaurant owners want to maximise the time that they can serve clients who want to linger into the early hours of the following morning.
Palma's Federation of Neighbourhood Associations says that they want businesses to close down by midnight at the latest, but there are some members, such as the association in Santa Catalina who say that 11pm should be the limit given that children and people who have to get up early for work the next day need to go to bed promptly.
Pere Felip, spokesman for the Santa Catalina association is calling for a meeting with Palma's Mayor Mateu Isern to discuss the matter and says that he will not hesitate to lodge legal complaints against businesses with terraces who flout the law.
On the other side of the divide, Pilar Carbonell, the President of the Restaurateurs' sector of the Balearic Business Federation (CAEB) claims that closing time should be put back to 1.30 or 2am, especially in the summer months. She said that a tourist city like Palma needs to cater for clients until the early hours of the morning. Legislation governing the use of terraces in the city is due to go through its initial stages of approval this month but both residents and businesses are putting forward complaints against the draft proposals in their present form. Another residents' federation Fepae is suggesting that bylaws need to be different for each area of the city. A bar terrace on the tourist area of Playa de Palma is one thing but in the centre of Palma it's another, a spokesman said.
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