calle Sanchez Pastor in the centre of Malaga, it measures 80 meters. In it there are 12 bars and restaurants and half a hundred tables for their clientele. To his side, Boiler house with 16 business catering in 113 meters, and the street Angel has six in 43 meters. In these ways nobody will be able to open bars or restaurants in five years because the City does not grant licenses. The moratorium includes 103 streets declared as Areas Acoustically Saturated (ZAS). The noise in them exceeds 55 decibels at night and 65 in the daytime. Some reach 90. "Rest is impossible," complains Oscar Sharp, a neighbor of the area.

The city Council, to comply with the european regulations, began to measure the noise in its streets more than a decade ago. In 2016, presented a map with the results and devised a plan of action to reduce the decibels in areas that are more saturated, which included the moratorium for opening new restaurants in 98 streets in the center and five other of the neighborhood of the university of Teatinos. The plan, which will go into effect this January following its publication in the Official Gazette of the Province, includes the advancement of the closure times, or the celebration of less municipal activities in the street.

The measure has not satisfied anyone. Javier de Frutos, president of the Association of Hoteliers in Malaga, considered "an intervention in the free market in a key area of the city," whose consequences "are unpredictable." The hoteliers fear that they will lose jobs and it will create bad image to the tourism. For their part, those who have spent years complaining of rest bad and little because of the noise, stress that it is "insufficient" and "comes too little, too late", according to Alejandro Villén, secretary of the neighborhood Association Historic Centre of Malaga.

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The city Council underlines that it has complied with the regulations that required him to put in place the areas ZAS. In addition, he has tried to exercise a role of mediator, seeking a "balance" between hoteliers and neighbors. "The fact that not just all of one hundred percent is a symptom of which is a balanced measure," he insists Gemma del Corral (PP), councillor of the Area of Environmental Sustainability.

When the city Council recently analyzed the challenges of urban tourism in Malaga, among the weaknesses of the city has located the "excessive concentration" of "restaurants, bars and franchises" in some areas of the historic centre. One of every five low commercial is dedicated to the restoration, according to a study by the Observatory of Urban Environment (OMAU). The entity has also seen the loss of population in this area, especially in areas around bars. "Those are the ones that create most problems," says Oscar Aguado. Residents of places such as the Plaza Mitjana or the calle Luis de Velázquez take years and years complaining about the nighttime noise due to the consumption of alcohol in public, prohibited by a municipal ordinance.

The declaration of 103 streets as Areas Acoustically Saturated includes other measures, such as the windows and doors of the dining options —with or without music— must be closed from eleven o'clock at night. Also the advancement of the closing of the terraces, a half-hour Sunday to Thursday (until 00.30, when up until now was to 1.00) and one hour from Saturday to Sunday (until 1.00, when before it was 2.00). In both cases, granted thirty more minutes in spring and summer. In all cases, each business must appoint a person responsible for the compliance of all of this.

there will be Only possibility to overcome these schedules in an exceptional way in dates such as easter, Christmas or Fair, and only 20 days a year, when up until now there was a margin of 70 days. The city Council also has pledged to reduce the number of municipal activities in the center. "We are self-limiting. The responsibility of lowering the noise pollution is all", concludes Gemma del Corral.

Date Of Update: 02 January 2020, 00:00