Citadel, July 7, 2023.
The Contentious-Administrative Court number 2 of Palma has condemned the City Council of Ciutadella to protect residents against noise, considering that their right to the inviolability of their homes has been violated due to municipal inactivity. The Court applies the consolidated doctrine of the contentious-administrative chamber of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands and the European Court of Human Rights.
The ruling, which is already final, will oblige the City Council, as required by law, to inspect and control the nightlife activities of the Plan, on the one hand. On the other hand, it must require any of them to have “terrace, space, enclosure or similar outdoors for entertainment and leisure” a “certificate with acoustic study that guarantees compliance with the requirements established in the Law”.
The complaint of the residents, part of the group affected by the noise, which is transmitted both by air and structurally due to the rocky terrain, showed that the complaints about the situation had been made “on countless occasions, for at least twenty-five years (25)” as evidenced by a dossier that was provided as evidence.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Balearic Islands requested the estimation of the plaintiffs’ request, echoing in their report to the Court of some of the circumstances that were revealed during the processing of the procedure: the “non-performance of acoustic controls, use of outdated sonometric systems (in reference to the recently installed, that same year, “emission control system”), entrusted with acoustic control to the Local Police without providing it with the appropriate control systems, etc.,” are for the Prosecutor’s Office determinants.
The fact that the current situation has not changed at the moment proves, in the opinion of the plaintiffs, the reality of what they have been denouncing over the years and revealed in their conclusions before the Court: “zero (0) measurements of activities in more than twenty (20) years” and no proceedings for exceeding the limits of noise against these same activities.
With the ruling, the neighbors consider it evident that the scenario has changed, and that the generic legal obligation has already become an obligation to comply with a judicial mandate. They announce that after the end of the period of voluntary compliance with the Judgment, they will request forced execution if the City Council does not act in accordance with the required terms. They will go, they announce, to the end in demanding responsibility. After more than two decades of illegal noise, they want to be able to rest and live normally with no tolerance other than that imposed on them by laws, the fulfillment of which they have been asking for decades for the good, without success. Heretofore. The neighbors have said enough, and Justice has proved them right.
AVALUA: A sentence that condemns the City Council of Ciutadella for inactivity in the face of sound attachment to neighbors for more than 25 years.
The technical evaluation and diagnosis test carried out by AVALUA during these last two summers has been very conclusive, as highlighted by the prosecutor’s office.
Now, by legal imperative, it is necessary for the City Council to regulate all nightlife activities that illegally operate in the Pla de Sant Joan de Ciutadella in order to guarantee coexistence and cohabitation of uses.
In a few months, the legal action of the lawyer Francisco Ojuelos www.fojuelos.com together with the acoustic engineering technician accredited ENAC of AVALUA www.avalua.eu, arguing the violation of the Fundamental Rights of neighbors, have been able to favor this favorable resolution. Now it’s time for local government executive action. Together we will guarantee rest and adequate coexistence. Let’s go!
