Arenal restaurants given 10 days to shut

SEVEN bars and restaurants at the far end of Jávea's Arenal beach have just over a week to shut up shop due to ‘licensing issues’.

As previously reported in Costa Blanca News, the premises have been trading since 2018 on temporary permits known as a ‘declaration of liability’, but isolated complaints about noise sparked an inquiry into their paperwork leading to the regional government ordering the council to close them down. Based on the Punta de l’Arenal peninsula, the bars are within a land-sea hinterland strip which comes under special protection of the national coast department – and, although this does not impede businesses setting up, their activity has to be compatible with a conservation or geographically-vulnerable zone.

At least some, if not all the traders involved had applied for an operating licence, given that the declaration of liability’ is a provisional permit pending council approval.

But the local and regional governments claimed ‘defects’ in the applications barred them from granting a licence, meaning owners were given a set time to resolve these issues. Some contested these, some say they have already resolved them, and all of them have been fighting the forced closure.

Jávea council was warned earlier this year to communicate the shutdown and conduct site visits to ensure it was complied with.

At first, they did not enforce this, but an ultimatum from higher authorities means the local government has now notified all seven premises.

Once they have remedied the defects flagged up, though, they would be granted a licence and permitted to reopen.