Calvia to crack down on pub crawls

Already, the council has announced plans to have more police on the streets of Magalluf, close Punta Ballena to traffic and install more CCTVcameras and lighting to increase safety and security and now it is going to take on one of the resort’s biggest problems.

For a number of years, resort businesses, especially those bars and clubs excluded from the organised pub crawls, have been complaining to the council and now, concerned about the public disorder the pub crawls provoke and damage to public property they cause, Mayor Manu Onieva is determined to curtail them.

This year, any one wishing to organise pub crawls will have to obtain a license from the local council and also take out civil responsibility insurance, which can be very costly when it comes to covering activities such as pub crawls. And that is not all, the council will also require the organisers, who until now in many cases have been unknown to the local authorities, to be registered with the tax office, providing their address and that of anyone working as ticket touts or promoters for them and also pay the council a special tax.

Special IDcards

Should applicants succeed on being granted council approval, the pub crawl guides will be issued with special identification cards which will state that they are council registered and recognised guides in the event of any problems.

They will also have to wear reflective jackets. Any one caught flaunting the new laws will face fines ranging from 750 to 3,000 euros.

It is understood that the motion will be unanimously approved on Thursday and it has already been welcomed by local businesses and residents in Magalluf and may well be copied by other resorts here in the Balearics or on the mainland.

Council sources have explained that the measures being introduced to tackle the problems caused by pub crawls are the first of their kind in Spain and have already attracted a great deal of interest from other local authorities.