News
The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1837
17 - 23 Sept 2020
COSTA DEL SOL • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
FREE • GRATIS
DEMAND ACTION THE bar owners on Fuengirola port are demanding help from the town hall as trade drops to a standstill. After months of delays, phone calls, texts and WhatsApp messages the bar owners on the port have simply ‘had enough,’ as one de-spirited expat put it. Since the lifting of the lockdown the port has not seen anywhere near the number of locals and tourists that normally visit the area. The fact that the UK still has the quarantine in place of course is not helping their cause but there is something else going on in the port, something much, much deeper and it’s been going on for a while now. It is so bad that at least eight bars have already been abandoned in the three months. On at least 10 occasions the police have suddenly appeared on their scooters and fined the bar they are closest to. The fines? Depends, sometimes it has been for staff not wearing masks - one Sun-
BAR OWNERS: Met to discuss the situation.
day a waitress came out on the terrace and for a second put her tray down to get change and she got a fine, well the bar did! On other occasions, like a swat team raid, the Local Police handed out fines for playing music to bars that have been doing just that for the last 20 years. A bar owner from the port, again not wanting to give their names for
fear of reprisals said: “My friends have lost about €50,000, they were doing sort of ok last year, but this year lost money every day. They lost count of the fines they had and couldn’t pay any more so just left. They were told when they bought the bar it was ok to have music, but obviously it wasn’t.” To put this all into context, this refers to background music, and
maybe a TV which customers watch the sport on. At a meeting yesterday, Wednesday September 16, it was mentioned that the police have been randomly fining bars that do not have?? You guessed it - a music licence, not a live music one, but one just to play background music, which totals almost €900 if you apply for TV and music together.