Did You Have To Pay That Fine?

And so, as I referred to briefly yesterday, there is a whole raft of street activities in Alcúdia that are to be outlawed, restricted and subject to fines. Much of this, one suspects, comes as a consequence of the complaints that were submitted to the town hall in respect of illegal street selling by legitimate traders along The Mile. But not all.

The headline targets of the new by-law (and I'm not sure when it applies from, but I guess it takes immediate effect) are the unauthorised street sellers. The report on all this from "The Diario" says that the unauthorised sale of food, drink and "other products" by the sellers will be subject to fines to 500 euros. As importantly, purchasers of these various products will also be liable to the same fine. Where do we start with this?

By other products, they mean this as a catch-all for the different things available from the lucky-lucky men and others who operate without any licences; this may well also include the women doing the hair braiding, though strictly speaking they are selling a service as opposed to a product. Whatever. But the really important bit of all this is that you, be you tourist or resident, can be fined for buying the stuff. Notwithstanding the question as to how well all this may be policed, if some poor tourist - ignorant of the by-law - forks out for a pair of dodgy sunglasses, he is likely to have his collar felt. Then what? Does he pay on the spot? Is he taken to court? How is this going to work? Will he even have 500 euros?

Do these other products include the crack? I imagine there are rather stricter sanctions than a 500 euro fine for this. And when the by-law refers to the "via pública" (public highway), does this mean that sales which occur in bars or on terraces or on the beach are exempt? The report refers also to "public space", so perhaps this does indeed mean all these non-street locations. There is no mention of bar owners being fined for allowing the trade, which is probably just as well. Any number of these bar owners already tell the lucksters to bugger off, but they can't necessarily be constantly vigilant or spend all their time haranguing them.

There are various other things covered by this by-law. Street prostitution, its offer and acceptance, begging, windscreen cleaners, loud music from cars are all subject to fines; restrictions, whatever they are, will be imposed on the likes of street painting and skateboarding. (No mention, note, of other potential street and indeed road hazards, such as Segways or trikes.) Then there is the drinking of alcohol in the streets. This is now banned. Mainly, this is to tackle what has been a growing problem of "botellón" parties whereby youngsters (mainly youngsters) get rat-arsed in the street at the weekend. Go to the area around the Magic Roundabout on a Friday or Saturday night, and you can begin to appreciate the problem. Getting cheap booze from a shop and then gathering with your mates in the street to the accompaniment of that loud music in cars is a cheap way of getting off your face prior to heading off to the clubs. And then there is the mess.

But street drinking has a tourist dimension. Here's an example. The other day, walking past the all-inclusive Piscis hotel in the port, I saw a group, each with a plastic glass of beer, coming out of the hotel and wandering off in the direction of the marina. It may have lacked class, but I doubt they were about to go and raise hell. Would the same group now know they are breaking the law? Going all-inclusive would no longer be the cheap option if a group of four got a collective fine of perhaps a couple of grand, and that could be higher if there happened to be a "minor" present. What is the public highway and public space in this regard? Go down to Bellevue at night and all manner of people are meandering about with drinks, such as on the "boulevard" that cuts between the two parts of the complex. But the boulevard is public highway. Does the "public space" mean that if one cracks open a can of Saint Mick on the beach, the long arm of the law will be stretched out clasping a ticket for a fine of a few hundred euros? The report does emphasise the botellón element, which is what the town hall is really keen to stamp out, so there may well be some discretion in all of this, but it says that "alcohol is not to be consumed in the street". Give plod half a chance ...

Much of what the town hall is introducing is perfectly understandable, but I wonder if they've thought it through. Apart from anything else, they are going to have to make it pretty damn clear to tourists - and tour operators and reps and hotels are going to have to be party to this as well - that things like buying illegal goods or quaffing a cold drink of alcoholic content in the streets (and possibly on the beach) are liable to cop them a fine.

And then there are the things that don't seem to be covered. Well one. Scratch cards. These may well be touted with licences, but when the town hall can invoke the "nuisance" of other practices now deemed punishable by a fine, have they not overlooked the nuisance factor of the scratch-cardists? One other point, the sale of illegal goods by the likes of the lucky-lucky men has always been subject to punishment. The mere nature of the goods, pirated goods, makes their sale illegal, as does the absence of a licence, the absence of a tax number, the absence of a permission to engage in a business activity. And where has all that got us up to now?

The new measures to rid the streets of Alcúdia of the various problems they seek to tackle could all be good news. But if they result in the occasional purge without sufficient information, the danger is that Alcúdia will not benefit from what it might hope will be good publicity for cleaning its act up but from the negative publicity of numbers of poor tourists being handed large fines. I hope the town hall and the police tread warily.


For those who understand Spanish, I link here the full article from "The Diario":

http://www.diariodemallorca.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2008092500_3_395402__PART-FORANA-Comprar-vendedor-ambulante-sancionara-multas-hasta-euros


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=UTuAXV8WyuI or http://www.theasteroidsgalaxytour.com/. Today's title - from a song with a girl's name; girl, big hair.

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