A controversial noise clampdown in the Brit-popular Ibizan party resort of San Antonio has been approved by councillors.
Plans to slash two hours off the closing times of bars and nightclubs in the town’s brash West End area were passed at a full council meeting today.
They now face having to close at 3am next summer instead of 5am, with terraces that opened till 2am facing closure at 11pm.
Opposition right-wing Popular Party councillors abstained in the vote to make it an Area of Special Acoustic Protection, with PP leader Jose Sala warning it would ruin British tourism and spell the end for many local firms and their workers.
Councillors have approved a controversial noise clampdown in the popular tourist area in Ibiza (pictured)
But the left-wing coalition holding power in San Antonio made sure it won initial consent.
The result is due to be rubber-stamped at a follow-up full council meeting in February.
Mayor Josep Tur said when he unveiled the plans earlier this month they were designed to improve San Antonio’s image.
Council chiefs have openly admitted they feel the West End has devalued the town’s standing.
The noise crackdown – part of a wider Balearic Islands campaign against drunken tourism – follows a study this summer which revealed the noise level was up to 85.9 decibels, more than 20 decibels above the legal limit.
As part of the strategy to bring the West End into line, nightspot owners will also be ordered to soundproof venues and install noise limiters.
A moratorium will also be introduced on the opening of new bars and clubs until noise levels are reduced to acceptable levels.
San Antonio’s councillor for the environment Pablo Valdes has called the noise levels in the West End in summer ‘monstrous.’
He said at this morning’s meeting the council was bringing in the new measures to ‘make the healthy business of tourism compatible with the healthy right to live in peace.’
Music bars and nightclubs (pictured) now face having to close at 3am next summer instead of 5am
The 85 decibels recorded in the West End in high season have been compared to the noise emitted by a Boeing 737 one mile from landing.
Popular Party leader Mr Sala, a critic of the noise crackdown plan, has said forcing late-night bars to close at 3am is ‘not the most adequate solution.’
Speaking ahead of the vote, he said: ‘We have to realise that we rely on tourism.
‘If these changes are applied only to San Antonio and not to other places, people will just go elsewhere after three in the morning.’
Business leaders have also voiced their dissent, claiming they have not been properly consulted and insisting nightspots that leave their doors open deliberately are the problem, not cafe and bar terraces per say.
Measures to tackle excess noise were introduced in Majorca’s Brit-popular resort of Magaluf this summer, with new regulations to limit music noise in establishments.
Councillors there are also trying to clean up its Punta Ballena party strip, branded ‘500 metres of shame’ by a former mayor, after they realised drunken tourism was affecting the image of the whole resort.