The historic Ca’l Pep winery on Verdi Street in the Vila de Gràcia neighborhood avoided the Barcelona City Council seal at the last minute this Tuesday. At least for now. The Contentious Administrative Court number 13 accepted the very precautionary measure requested by the property and temporarily suspended the closure dictated by the Consistory and scheduled for noon since this establishment in operation since 1937 fails to comply with the environmental ordinance due to excessive noise.
This is a huge administrative mess that has been going on for months, which will clearly become even more complicated in the near future and which also compromises the viability of one of those businesses that, when they suddenly close, everyone very much regrets. The last people in charge of this winery had been saying for a long time that they were willing to carry out works to soundproof the premises, as requested by the City Council. The problem, the tug of war, was always finding a way so that these works do not destroy the history that accumulates in these walls, that the soundproofing does not ultimately result in the plasticization of the joint.
“The truth is that we did not find this middle ground to safeguard the essence of the winery,” laments the business owner. Furthermore, the City Council did not give the green light to our project until recently. Let’s see when we get the next closure order! so we don’t know how many months we will have to be closed. The companies that can do these jobs do not come as soon as you call them, and we could not call them until we had the approval of the City Council. And all because of a single complaint… This business had problems in its life. The budget is 40,000 euros.” A few days ago, the leader of the Barcelona PP, Daniel Sirera, asked Mayor Jaume Collboni to intercede to guarantee the viability of the historic establishment.
And the City Council states that this administrative procedure started in May of last year, that it followed the established procedures at all times, that the winery did not present its first soundproofing project until the previous July, that they could not allow them to increase the capacity so that they could make the renovation works profitable… “From the first moment the City Council has supported the owners of this establishment with the desire to solve the problem.”
