Cañas and mojitos (legal) are back on the beach. Regulars on the Barcelona coast – pending recreational bathing but overturning these days of lack of confidence in walking and playing sports on the sand – can have a drink or eat in the 15 local beach bars this summer, after an in extremis agreement between the operators and the city council that enables its opening. Those who already had the structure assembled before the State of Alarm was declared may open tomorrow, Monday.
The government team has chosen to apply the 75% discount of the terrace fees that has been provided to bars and restaurants throughout the city. Only in this case it affects the total temporary activity fee, so the sum is much more important. The dimensions of the terraces are exceptionally expanded so that the safety distance is maintained by the covid-19, but the enclosures have their expected capacity of 30 tables and 120 chairs. Too you can develop the activity of hammocks and parasols in the sand
The pact between the consistory and the collective It occurred on Saturday night, after the Barcelona Beach Bar Association had renounced the season, as EL PERIÓDICO exclusively reported on April 24. The reasons were the high fees paid by the operators (in some cases above half a million euros), which made their economic viability impossible in a spring-summer marked by confinement and with months of hiatus. Those affected had paid these fees in advance, thinking of raising the blind in March, and the numbers were impossible.
Service and jobs
But finally, the city council has become aware that the absence of beach bars would not only have left without legal offer of drinks and food to bathers (a necessary service for such a popular coastline), it had also led to the illegal street sale of these products, which has already grown relentlessly in recent summers, despite its health risks. The hundreds of jobs that this sector generates each year would also have been lost.
The agreement reached, which involves Parks and Gardens and the direct negotiation of Janet SanzThe second mayor of Urbanism, arrives when the operators were already determined not to open. However, not only will they pay only 25% of the fee corresponding to the actual period in which they open, but they will also be refunded the amount proportional to the closing days urgently.
Some beach bars that already set up their facility in early March could therefore open from Monday morning if they arrive in time to organize and stock up. The rest will prepare their spaces in a hurry in the coming days.
The Gremi de Restauració of Barcelona It has celebrated this pact (almost a childbirth) that returns an important economic activity in terms of economic impact and service to the city, but also gives a certain normal character after an unusual start to the season. But Roger Pallarols, director of the employer’s association, highlights that a door has also been opened to reformulate the contracts of this activity and guarantee its future viability, after several years of complaints from operators.
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