At about noon this Tuesday, the owner of the Dox y Fox bar, on Rodríguez San Pedro street, set up your covid terrace like every day since he first put it on in August of last year. “It cost me about 2,000 euros between the installation, the tables and the stoves,” says the hotelier. For him it is a normal day, as it is for almost all the hoteliers in the Gaztambide area.
On this same street, a few numbers down, at El Greco’s restaurant, which has a covid terrace that occupies five parking spaces, diners enjoy their breakfast in the sun. “No one has told me anything about having to remove the terrace,” says the manager. In addition, he affirms that people are still scared to enter and that without the terrace they would lose many sales.
Goodbye to terrace extensions: 2,000 bars in Madrid have to reduce space
Europa Press
As of this Tuesday, 24 will also have to be removed from protected areas in Gaztambide and Azca. In addition, the criteria for “saturated areas” are defined.
But it is not a morning like any other, or, at least, it is not in the Madrid district of Chameberí. This first of February the new ordinance of Terrazas came into force which was approved by the plenary session of the Madrid City Council last week. The regulations establish that the covid terraces that existed in the area of Gaztambide y Azca where there is a special protection against noise (ZPAE) they have to be lifted. The City Council has calculated that in theory 23 permits should disappear in the Chamberí district.
However, this newspaper has covered all the streets that make up this special protection zone and the response of almost all hoteliers has been the same: “They haven’t told us anything.” All the streets keep their pandemic look with the parking spaces in the area occupied by tables and chairs on improvised supports of wood and cement.
Open battle for the terraces: “The neighbors complain but then they sit down with reeds”
Andrea Farnós
The New Ordinance will be endorsed in plenary next Tuesday. Check the areas with the most terraces in the capital on this map
On Meléndez Valdés street, from the Don Oso hamburger restaurant they accept that they know that the ordinance has already begun to work, but they say that until no one from the City Council goes to inform them that their terraces are now illegal, they are not going to remove them.
The Madrid City Council, for its part, claims to have informed all hoteliers in the area this morning with a letter about the change in ordinance. Also, they explain, they have been given a couple of days to finish adapting to the new regulations. “The affected districts have notified the hoteliers today through the road runners that the terraces in ZPAE must be lifted, therefore, today they should no longer work, although it is true that they are first required to do so voluntarily and subsequently, if they do not comply, it is forcibly lifted by the City Council. In other words, there could be a compliance period of a few days”, say sources from the Territorial Coordination area.
Bewilderment and Indignation
Among the neighbors, however, spread bewilderment and indignation. On the one hand, they do not understand what this grace period of a couple of days that the City Council is managing when the new ordinance was approved a week ago and days ago since it is known that it came into force today. On the other hand, there are even those who distrust that the rules will be complied with: “They are not going to disappear, they are playing with us,” declares the president of the El Organillo de Chamberí neighborhood association, Pilar Rodríguez. “The hoteliers are going to say that they do not know anything about any ordinance. It’s normal, they don’t care.
Rodríguez hopes that, with everything and with that, finally the terraces are removed. For now, there hasn’t been much change: “We were walking through the streets of the neighborhood this morning and we didn’t see any movement. No one has raised anything,” he says. Yesterday’s words from the Deputy Mayor, Begona Villacis, echo in his head: “Tomorrow the neighbors will be able to check what the ordinance consists of.” This Tuesday, only one terrace of the more than 20 that had to vacate the road has complied with the new regulations.
The Meléndez Valdés Churros factory accepts that they will not remove them until the City Council tells them in person
Some businesses promise some resistance. The Meléndez Valdés Churros factory, for example, has a covid terrace with four tables and they accept that they will not remove them until the City Council tells them in person. “They will have to come, and then we will remove them,” understood their manager.
For his part, the councilor of Recupera Madrid Jose Manuel Calvo He was also visiting the area. He explained that the hoteliers have asked the Chamberí district board for a period of two or three days to lift the terraces: “We will be very high so that the rule is applied,” says Calvo, seeing that this Tuesday not much has changed .
© Provided by El Confidencial
Covid terrace in the Gaztambide area.
Covid terrace in the Gaztambide area.
These are terraces that, in reality, should never have existed. “They have always been illegal”, assure from the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM). The terraces are located in a special acoustic protection zone and in a residential area, so their installation is strictly prohibited in accordance with current regulations. “Surely the hoteliers ask for new permits and try to regularize the situation”, they assure from the FRAVM.
This Tuesday, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has applauded the “extraordinary effort” of the hoteliers for the modification of the Terraces ordinance of the capital and has added that the City Council will do everything possible so that all businesses are informed. “We don’t want to go into inspection for inspection’s sake,” the mayor said.
Rita Maestre has explained that this ordinance causes problems with merchants and neighbors
And he added: “We have had the hotel and restaurant associations, which have given support to the regulation. It is not easy to support an ordinance where 70% of Covid terraces disappear. It is an extraordinary effort. We want all hoteliers to be aware and they are going to be the first to collaborate with it”. For the opposition, this has been a missed opportunity. The councilor of More Madrid Rita Maestre He explained that the only thing this ordinance does is consolidate practices that are causing problems with merchants and neighbors.
After a few hours, the owners of the Entrepanes pizzeria, on Hilarión Eslava street, began to dismantle their terrace. “This is a satisfaction, albeit a small one. That they have raised one should not be extraordinary, but it is, ”says Rodríguez.
It is expected that in the next few days 2,000 expansions of covid terraces will also disappear. Now, the terraces of the capital will be conditioned by the so-called “saturated areas”, which will be defined in the coming months.