The Covid terraces in Madrid will close at midnight to avoid inconvenience to neighbors

The terraces that have been exceptionally enabled in the city of Madrid due to the Covid-19 pandemic may only be open until 00:00 hours instead of until 01:00, when all bars are closed. These are terraces that were enabled in places such as sidewalks and parking strips, being commonly called ‘Covid terraces’. This measure will come into force as of this Friday, June 4 and has been agreed at the last meeting of the terraces commission created in the City Council of the capital.The proposal to close these terraces one hour earlier than allowed has arisen from the hoteliers themselves in the face of criticism from neighbors affected by the noise, as explained this Thursday by the deputy mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, at a press conference after the Municipal Government Board. This measure to close an hour earlier affects only the called ‘Covid terraces’, not to the terraces that were already authorized before the pandemic, and if the businessmen do not want to close at midnight they will have to do without the tables exceptionally expanded by the pandemic.Begoña Villacís has assured that with this measure It is intended “to bet on coexistence between businessmen and neighbors and guarantee the balance between health and the economy.” Until 2022, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, opened h A few weeks ago, if circumstances require it, the so-called ‘Covid terraces’ will be kept. The City Council of the capital announced that these terraces will disappear in 2022. An announcement that generated a strong malaise in the hospitality sector, which warned that the elimination of these spaces in just seven months could endanger the viability of 2,000 businesses and 6,000 jobs.After the commotion generated, the mayor said that the terraces could continue “if exceptional situations continue to occur.” A door to the hope of the hoteliers that, however, the councilor qualified that “the extraordinary” – in reference to the fitting out of these terraces – cannot “become ordinary”. The expansion of terraces decreed by the Madrid City Council It has led to the elimination of a total of 1,502 parking spaces in the capital, of which 202 are in the blue zone and 1,300 in the green zone. The districts with the most green zone squares occupied by terraces are Chamberí, which reaches 450, and Salamanca, with 397. Those with the most blue zone squares are Chamberí, with a total of 57, and Chamartín, with 46.