Although it has yet to receive official notification from the Costas Authority, Campos town hall is preparing the demolition of the six permanent chiringuito bars on Es Trenc beach. The Supreme Court has ruled that the town hall is obliged to knock them down and make provision for demountable bars, i.e. ones that can be removed at the end of the season.
Mayor Sebastià Sagreras says that the administrative process for demolition has started and that the town hall is setting aside 200,000 euros for this from its budget surplus. This is in response to the court stating that natural beaches such as Es Trenc, which are not classified as ones in urban, built-up areas, cannot have chiringuitos with concrete bases. They have to be removable and, moreover, have to comply with the dimensions specified in the Coasts Law. The current bars are larger than these specifications permit.
Sagreras adds that the 2013 Coasts Law offered transitional dispensation for chiringuitos more than twenty years old, which is the case with the bars on Es Trenc. However, this was appealed by an individual (not named) and the court ended up with its ruling.
The mayor is trusting that the Costas will give the town hall some room for manoeuvre and that it will not have to apply the court's decision this summer. As previously reported, the town hall has yet to receive instruction from the Costas to enable it to put beach services out to tender; these include the bars. There has therefore already been a month's delay. Sagreras suggests that there are two options. One would be that the Costas allow the chiringuitos to stay as they are until the end of the summer and are then knocked down. The other would be to close them and install demountable bars.
The regional government, meanwhile, has applauded the court's ruling, saying that the Es Trenc chiringuitos have not been legal for years. The director-general for natural spaces, Miquel Mir, points to their not complying with the 2013 law or with an order of the same year by the regional environment ministry.