La Lonja area of Palma, Mallorca

The town hall was taken to court over the earlier closure. | Pere Bota

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma05/03/2021 16:13
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A Palma court has ruled against Palma town hall's introduction of an 11pm closure of bars and restaurants in the city's La Lonja area.

Decreed in April 2019, the town hall's decision was challenged by the restaurants association within the CAEB Confederation of Balearic Business Associations. It believes that the court's ruling will entail significant compensation for establishments that were affected. Their income was reduced because the 11pm closure limited the provision of dinner service in summer.

Miquel Planas of legal firm Monlex says that the town hall did not act legally. It imposed a time restriction "at the stroke of a decree, with zero transparency and without attending to the administrative procedure for this". He adds that "this is not the first unfavourable ruling with regard to Palma town hall and the restaurant sector". A previous one had declared the illegality of automatically revoking permissions that were in force that allowed longer opening hours.

The restaurants association says that it had at all times sought to avoid going to court and that it tried to resolve the matter through dialogue.

The court's ruling is not final.