The City Council of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat has initially approved a time restriction that requires 2,071 personalised sales or self-service shops of up to 300 square meters to close between 22:00 and 07:00.
The City Council of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat has given initial approval to a measure affecting 2,071 commercial establishments in the city. From its entry into force, personalised sales or self-service shops with an area of up to 300 square meters must close their doors between 22:00 and 07:00 throughout the municipal area.
The modification extends a restriction that previously did not have general scope to the entire city. The aim is to cut the movement of drinking parties to unregulated neighbourhoods, a border effect that the council wants to avoid with the update of the municipal decree in force since 2010.
The measure affects 2,071 establishments spread across L'Hospitalet and will apply to commercial premises of this format that engage in night sales activities. Until now, the municipal framework was based on a decree approved in 2010.
The new wording maintains the intervention during that time frame but expands its territorial scope and adapts the legal basis to the current framework by replacing the repealed Law 8/2004 with Law 18/2017 on commerce. With this change, the council aims to prevent activity from shifting from one area to another when part of the municipality is subject to restrictions and another is not.
Police reports and those from the Markets, Commerce and Consumption Section support the restriction for its alignment with the protection of residents' rest and the control of night sales of alcoholic beverages. In this same area, other measures regarding hours and coexistence have appeared in fines for selling alcohol at night approved in Terrassa.
The initial approval now opens the public exhibition period. If there are no changes that alter the planned schedule, the final approval will arrive between September and October. The entry into force will occur the day after the publication of the regulation in the BOPB.
The file will remain on public display until early August. Interested residents and merchants will be able to submit objections during this period.
The measure has received mixed opinions among the city's merchants, who fear a loss of income, while residents' associations see it as a necessary tool to ensure night rest and reduce drinking parties.
The City Council of L'Hospitalet hopes that the restriction will help improve coexistence in the neighbourhoods most affected by noise and disturbances arising from the night sale of alcohol.
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