Restaurant and bar owners in Palma called for a postponement of a meeting with the town hall that was scheduled for yesterday afternoon regarding the new terraces bylaw. The restaurants associations wrote to the town hall and said that they were only being given two days to consider the draft of the public way ordinance. "As this is so important and has taken so long, we cannot study it so quickly."
The president of the association, Alfonso Robledo, said on Wednesday that there was a great deal at stake, and that there was simply insufficient time for the association to come up with an alternative proposal, which the town hall had requested. Robledo added that the bylaw will affect different parts of the city in different ways, be these areas as different as Playa de Palma or Pere Garau. "We need time to submit a viable alternative proposal."
Robledo was also critical of the fact that no study of the economic impact of the bylaw has been provided. The association calculates that around one hundred jobs will be lost. In just two important areas - Blanquerna and calle Fabrica - each restaurant would have to let go of two to three employees.
Businesspeople along Fabrica are outraged at the proposals and are prepared to do everything necessary to prevent them. They say that it makes no sense to eliminate one whole row of tables and chairs from each side of the street and add that residents have expressed their opposition to the elimination of terraces, as these give the street plenty of life. José Pérez, who owns two establishments along Fabrica, says that the town hall's proposals would eliminate 50% of the terraces.