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26th
NOV
Sandcastles Outlawed at Popular Beach
Posted by jessie under Amusement, News
What do you like to do when you go to the beach—swim? Fish? Play pass? Build a sandcastle? Enjoy a romantic midnight stroll?
If you’re into doing anything of the aforementioned activities, you’d better take heed if you’re planning on vacationing at the popular beaches in Benidorm, Spain, one of the most popular travel destinations for British tourists.
Officials have released a new series of rules for the beach that are intended to help prevent “misuse”.
Benidorm currently has European Blue Flag status, meaning that it is recognized as one of the continent’s cleanest beaches. The new rules have been implemented in an effort to keep the beach clean and safe, and maintain Benidorm’s Blue Flag status.
With the laws in place, people will be fined for many activities ranging from building a sandcastle, to fishing, to walking on the beach after midnight. The sandcastles make it harder for workers to clean the beach, and the after midnight rule is supposed to keep people from having sex on the beach or using the sand as a toilet when they are drunk.
Beach cleaners picked up over five tons of trash during last July and August alone.
The fines for violations carry a heavy penalty, with €750 for going on the beach between midnight and 7AM, having sex on the beach or drinking alcohol on the beach, and €150 for either building a sandcastle or placing towels down to reserve a space, and those are just to name a few.
Although the restrictions are meant to keep the beach cleaner and nicer for everyone, they could end up costing the resort money as tourists may decide to vacation somewhere else that has fewer restrictions and less severe penalties.
(link)
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November 26, 2008 -
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This is just my two cents worth, my opinion, and I can’t make assurances of any or all of these facts, but:
Having lived in Spain, this doesn’t seem that preposterous, as measures such as fining up to 1500 euros for not properly sorting thrash (though these fines apply to communities), fining over 100 euros if a police officer notices that you have not bagged your dog’s ‘business’ in what he has assumed to be a ‘reasonable’ amount of time, or an increasing number of surveillance of points in the road that seem more intent on revenue income rather than monitoring hot zones or congestion points, are now reaching their fruition a system where the legal system is oversaturated and overabused and where it is expected that problems in services should be handled by fines and denial of the service to the herald rather than by improvement of the service, especially now with the ‘economic crisis’ psychology evoking submission from the general populace.
Given the almost insignificant public outlash when people found out the paycheck bonus Zapatero had pushed forward during his recent election will be reneged and taken back, I can only deduce that people in Spain have become only too accustomed to this behavior.
Perphaps I’m mistaken of a great many things, so if anyone feels as such, feel free to point it out.