Following the decision of the Balearic High Court to annul the civic ordinance in Palma, the national government delegate to the Balearics, Teresa Palmer, has met with José Hila, Palma's mayor, to discuss joint actions to be taken in Playa de Palma.
The two agreed that there was no legal uncertainty or legal vacuum because of the court's ruling, as there are state and municipal laws that regulate aspects contemplated under the ordinance. They will both attend the next meeting of the Playa de Palma monitoring committee in order to explain existing regulations to businesspeople and residents of the area and actions to be jointly undertaken by the town hall and the government delegation this summer.
They emphasised that both the local police and the National Police have a legal framework through which they can penalise anti-social behaviour. On this, therefore, they were wishing to put across a message of reassurance.
The town hall last week accepted that it would comply with the court's ruling and agreed to reintroduce the specific bylaw against street drinking that had been introduced when Aina Calvo (PSOE) was mayor.
Although the legal services at the town hall considered that the Calvo bylaw should be revived as a result of the ruling, there has yet to be any clarification as to the some 18,000 proceedings that were opened while the civic ordinance was in force and which are now up in the air.
The previous PP administration's anti-social behaviour crackdown included drinking alcohol out of glass bottles on the beach, parading around in just swimming shorts or a bikini away from the front line and late-night gatherings of young drinkers, otherwise known as the “botellón”.
The town hall's ordinance upset residents' associations and the business and tourism communities. It was the Palma federation of residents' associations which took the matter to court.