The environment ministry is to fine the owner of an illegal beach bar at Cala Varques, Manacor 100,000 euros and has banned him from setting it up again.
The minister, Vicenç Vidal, explains that the ministry doesn't have competences with regard to beach bars. In this case, however, as the chiringuito has no authorisation of any type, the ministry has been able to act on environmental grounds. The owner, he added in a radio interview, had acknowledged to environment agents that he was undertaking a commercial activity; a file was opened on the case in 2016.
The ministry has taken the action it has because of what it perceives as the passivity of other administrations, notably the Costas Authority, and because the chiringuito "symbolises environmental degradation" at Cala Varques.
In light of the inaction, he renewed a demand that there should be direct management of the coasts in the Balearics and not via the state Costas Authority. Vidal noted that, over the past two years, thirteen requests have been made to the Costas, asking the authority to study the legality of other chiringuitos. As of yet, there has been no response to any of them.
Manacor's mayor, Catalina Riera, says that the town hall has called on the Costas to intervene on various occasions but that it has not. She believes that the bar has contributed to the increased numbers of beachgoers and to "saturation".