ALICANTE has implemented the Old Town area’s first ZAS zone to curb noise late at night.
The measure provisionally came into force on Tuesday- pending a formal rubber-stamping within a month by the Environment Ministry.
Residents have complained for years about excess noise in the early hours from hospitality businesses that’s kept them awake.
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The Old Town ZAS includes the Plaza de Quijano plus Calles Padre Malts, Virgen de Belen, Montengon and San Agustin, where restaurant and nightlife activities are concentrated.
It means that as a general rule, bars and restaurants have to close at 12.30am between Sunday and Thursday nights- extended to 1am for the rest of the week and on holiday-eve nights.
Nightclubs can open until 1am for the early part of the week, stretching to 3am at the weekend.
The regulations will apply all year, with the exception of the Christmas period and Bonfires celebrations.
Any new licence applications for leisure venues and nightclubs are suspended but that will not affect proposed changes to current licences like a building switching from a leisure use to become a restaurant.
Another big change is the reduction of outdoor terrace areas by 50% plus tables and chairs will have to be removed earlier.
The bans also affects convenience shops which have to be closed between midnight and 7am.
Vendors selling street food ‘out of hours’ will face the same restriction.
Alicante’s Policia Local will conduct surveillance operations to ensure compliance with closing times and the removal of terraces.
The ZAS also gives officers the power to ‘disperse groups of people in the vicinity of premises once they have closed’.
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