The Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona has initiated the procedures to stop granting licenses in 2023 to the thirty terraces that last year accumulated more files for putting more tables and occupying more public space than they were allowed, so they must “disappear “.
The councilor for Ciutat Vella, Jordi Rabassa, has announced that this unprecedented measure has begun to be communicated to restaurateurs who in 2022 accumulated more than five files for non-compliance on their terraces in the four neighborhoods of the district (Barceloneta, Raval, Gòtic and Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera) and that will continue in the coming years.
“Some restaurateurs have shown that they do not respect the neighborhood or community life. We do not want them to have a terrace”, stressed the councilor, who explained that among the restaurateurs whose terrace is removed there are some who accumulated up to 15 in 2022 files.
As confirmed by the council, among the licenses that will not be renewed in 2023 are some in the central section of the Rambla and in the Paseo de Joan de Borbó.
Rabassa has justified that Ciutat Vella is the district where fewer terraces have been consolidated than those granted exceptionally at the end of the pandemic due to its urban configuration, but “also because we have seen considerable non-compliance in all the neighborhoods”.
