The Independent and other UK press has picked up on this story from Mojacar, open the link or read it below
POSTCARD FROM MOJACAR
No loud heel-clacking in private properties or domino-playing, dice-playing and loud conversations in the outdoor terraces of bars. According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the coastal resort of Mojacar will soon declare all-out war on civic noise, and these are just a few of the possible bans, with the very worst offences receiving fines of €3,000.
Spain has a well-earned reputation for being one of the noisiest countries on the planet, but that could be about to change – in Mojacar at least. Already, El Mundo says, a recent ban on disco music in beach bars means only background music is apparently now acceptable. And next on the black list, subject to a town hall debate later this week, could be “running, jumping, skating and taconear [stomping around a flat in noisy heels]” in private homes.
And so the list goes on: singing, playing dice or dominos, shouting or talking “excessively loudly” could all be barred from the outdoor terraces of bars and cafés. As for “making noise in general… when the levels are unacceptable”, that gets the thumbs down, too.
A town hall authority was quoted in El Mundo as saying the aim was merely to keep the peace while also maintaining “a degree of common sense”. The opposition have allegedly claimed such measures are possibly anti-constitutional, and could limit the town’s tourist appeal.
Or as one councillor reportedly put it: “If these [measures] were applied all the way along the Mediterranean coast, it would turn it into a cemetery.”