City council gets tough on Playa de Palma bars

SIX Playa de Palma bars have been threatened with closure by the Local Police within the next 24 hours unless they start obeying the municipal laws governing opening hours and noise levels. Last month hoteliers in the area, worried about the drop in their main German market, criticised the Palma city council for allowing bar owners to flaunt the laws and warned the Mayor Joan Fageda, that if the council does nothing to clean up the resort, they will take matters into their own hands. The Local Police said yesterday that most of the bars which have been given the ultimatum, have been breaking the noise level regulations and if the bars in question have failed to have taken the necessary steps to rectify the situation by this afternoon, they face closure. Yesterday afternoon a team of police officers hit the area around calle Jamon distributing warning leaflets and handing out the ultimatum to the bars which have been singled out, in the first wave of the city council's cleanup operation. Last week the police mounted a swoop on prostitutes in the area and around 100 people were taken in, 37 of whom were either Nigerian or Senegalese women working illegally in the country. Hoteliers are convinced that the demise of some areas in the Playa de Palma has damaged the resort's image and has done nothing to help bookings this year. They are worried that they will have to reduce their prices if the general quality of the area continues to fall and will have to operate at 20 to 30 percent cheaper than other resorts.