“In mid-July our ordeal begins. We can’t rest at night all summer long.” This is how the residents of the Bellamar neighborhood in Pineda de Mar (Maresme) summarize their “ordeal” since 2008, when the City Council decided to locate dozens of musical activities on the beach, less than a hundred meters from the houses.
The Mossos d’Esquadra have submitted the acoustic measurements made to the Prosecutor’s Office to demonstrate that the residents of the Bellamar neighborhood suffer prolonged overexposure to the intense noise caused by musical activities. The City Council recognizes the problem and assures that it will transfer a large part of the activities that are now centralized on the beach to other locations so that they “are rotating”, as explained by the first lieutenant of Security, Sílvia Biosca.
Residents denounce that “in order not to have legal problems” the mayor of Pineda de Mar, Xavier Amor, has issued a decree every year suspending the acoustic quality ordinance for one kilometer around where the Arts d’Estiu Festival is held. . A decree that this year will not be applied to the ongoing investigation.
“For more than 15 years they have promised us that this will change,” say the neighbors. There are families who suffer dramatic situations, “with children with serious mental disabilities who cannot bear the noise of the festivals during the summer.” And it is that the City Council has centralized the musical events on the seafront.
“They start with the Psicobilly”, which for five nights blows up the loudspeakers until six in the morning. “The Arts d’Estiu continues”, they explain, which has come “to hold 21 concerts until midnight”, although later it continues in the village annex, a leisure space open “until two in the morning”. And, as if that were not enough, “the barracks of the main festival” arrive with music until six in the morning. To all these activities are added “the beach bars with music without control at full volume until three in the morning.” An “unsustainable” situation, say the neighbors.
“We have denounced it in every possible way, but they have ignored us,” say those affected, who regret the null case that the local police make of their complaints. They explain that in one year they have submitted more than 75 requests and 57 signatures from neighbors and that “a single family has called the police up to 46 times.” Some of these neighbors have taken their irritation to the municipal plenary session.
This year, finally, they have decided to take action and report to the Mossos d’Esquadra the excessive noise, as well as the activities to the State Coastal Demarcation. The official measurements show an excess of decibels inside the houses, for which they have raised the case to the Prosecutor’s Office.
