Pity they can't enforce these rules around the pool !!!

Best Regards

Elaine

A new set of laws, which are due to be introduced next year carry the following (and other) fines:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/3513099/Benidorm-declares-war-on-unruly-British-tourists.html

Saw that on GMTV today.

They said there were 73 new laws

There are loads more:

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/we-will-fight-them-on-the-beaches-1033810.html

The idea would seem to be that Benidorm should be cleaned up and then considered for World Heritage status.
Not all ideas thought up by important officials are sensible, and this one, which was thought up by Maria Jose Montiel Vaquer, director of the Benidorm tourist board, seems particularly daft.

It really does not matter what your views on Benidorm are. Even the most enthusiastic fan could not rate the place in the same catagory as The Great Wall of China, the Galapagos Islands, the Taj Mahal or the Acropolis.

The idea would seem to be that Benidorm should be cleaned up and then considered for World Heritage status.

No the idea is because Benidorm's beautiful beaches are soooooooooooooooo popular, but are being left like a rubbish tip.

Some of them are not new laws either, they have been in force for years, but being in force on paper and actually being physically enforced, is two different things.
Rank alongside the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China,? oh these journalist do have a way with words when they can't think of anything better to say to fill the page

Fines for ignoring the red flag ?....good. bring it on, they are bluddy idiots who think they can swim the Channel.
Fines for taking dogs on the beach ?....good.bring it on....dog poo on the beach is disgusting.
Fines for taking glass on the beach.?...good. bring it on...no more kids feet cut to shreds.
Fines for peeing in the sea ? good.....fish swim in the sea and I eat fish.
Fines for playing football outside designated area's? ...Good, bring it on, I'm sick of teenagers/men thinking they're some clone of Cristiano Ronaldo or Beckham and lopping a ball all over MY space that I have PAID for..... off somewhere else, there's enough area's already on the beach for this type of sport.
Fines for bits of paper discarded all over the place from touts......good.bring it on....shift them (touts) out of the resort altogether.

Building sand castles.? I think that is not what the Spanish mean, they are talking about the people who dig massive craters in the sand during the day and then pee off without filling the hole back in......great for you, but not so good for the poor tractor driver cleaning the beach up at night when his tractor wheels drop into the hole.
It will be interesting to see how this applies to the famous sand sculptures.?

Drinking alcohol on the beach ? it's actually against the law to drink alcohol on Benidorm's promenade and has been for years, unless you're sat inside a bar set back from the promenade.
Selling merchandise on the beach ? already the law in many Spanish resorts.
The beach off-limits from midnight to 7am .? the law is already in place for that too, but don't think Benidorm's unique, the law regarding the beach applies to MANY other resorts, Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol is one resort that I know for defininate has this ruling.
It was to stop people partying and going out for a midnight swim while pithed up...again safety rather than being a spoil sport was the thought behind the rule, and it wasn't particularily aimed at the British either, it was because Spanish youths went through a phase of buying cheap cartons of wine from the supermarket and then sitting around a bonfire in large groups all night long, getting pithed, having sex and going out to sea.

Let's face it, some British are too pithed before nightfall to stand up, never mind walk to the beach.

Sanji

All those fines for relatively minor indiscretions?

I don't think that would be good at all. It will be even more like the UK.

Who on Earth would welcome this barrage of regulations? I would have thought that people go on holiday to escape from petty officialdom.

All those fines for relatively minor indiscretions?
I don't think that would be good at all. It will be even more like the UK.
Who on Earth would welcome this barrage of regulations? I would have thought that people go on holiday to escape from petty officialdom.

Minor discretions they might be, but on a mass scale they become a big problem

Yes, I welcome some of these rules, the majority of them are common sense and have your safety in mind.
The majority of them wouldn't have to be in force if people didn't treat the resort like one gigantic toilet....so you think it's ok to leave your filthy habits in the resort.?
How many times do people give their review about the state of the beach in other resorts and say it's filthy? but, they never admit that they contribute to that....they are on holiday, so it's ok then.? not my problem Señor, I'll visit for 2 weeks and leave you a pile of .

It appears that they've realised that they've got to look after the Tourist.Checkout diarioinformacion website to see the comments from them in Spain.

It appears that they've realised that they've got to look after the Tourist.Checkout diarioinformacion website to see the comments from them in Spain.

I'm sorry, but it's not saying that at all, not in the context that your post implies or could be interpreted.
Hoteliers, leisure and business agree on the need to fight the booze parties on the beach (botellón) which I have already explained creates broken glass and safety issues, they also agree that they need to protect the coast and that the other bad habits need "rules".
They all agree that the beach cannot be messed around at night and having people going on there to get barbiturates.

But they are also saying that we must "take care of the tourists."....meaning the other tourists who like to sit or take a stroll on the beach at night and who never get pithed up or cause any problems, they must also take care of these tourists and be flexible.
Flexible because there are many Spanish families who have commented saying that they take their kiddies to play on the equipment and under the promenade lights very late at night, some of their parents don't finish work until gone 10 pm and if the kiddies are not in school, then why shouldn't they.? for the families who live in Benidorm, it's their beach too.

Many Spaniards like to walk on the beach very late at night and they are not happy bunnies, but what is the answer.?
Have the police patrolling the Kilometers of beach between midnight and 7 am and leave the streets to the undesirables.?
I don't know the answer, but it isn't so simple as some people think it is. (comments read in papers)

Benidorm's beaches are one of the resorts main attractions, if not THE attraction and if they are getting fouled up with dog poo and broken glass, then I personally would want them to do something about it, but the problem with enforcing a blanket ban and making the beach "out of bounds" for everyone, is that majority of "ordinary" folks suffer too because of the minority
You have to look at the other side of the coin....Benidorm Ayuntamiento employ a driver/tractor with the machine in tow to sift/clean the sand and the mess left by those who use the beach during the day, 364 days a year"¦come sunshine, rain, snow or hail.
When the tractor has finished (I've seen the tractor out at way gone midnight ) and the beach is all clean for the next day, you then have groups of people holding booze/drugs gatherings and they leave their mess behind.

Come the next morning, the tourists see a load of beer bottles, broken glass and maybe syringes on the beach, plus irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs defecate on the beach...
Now, dog poo is something that really makes me angry, I've seen the length of Levante promenade cleaned very late at night/early hours and I've walked on the same promenade at 6am and there's several dollops of dog mess on there....I personally would hit them with the heftiest fine possible. people like that don't deserve a beautiful beach.

Who is going to get it in the neck when the tourist moan about the dirty beaches.?
Word gets around and it gets exaggerated out of all proportions that "Benidorm beaches are full of dog poo, druggies and broken glass"

I can just see the headlines now, the rival resorts and the tabloids would have field day, not forgetting the people who get satisfaction from saying " I told you so". Like I say, I don't know the answer, but it's clearly a problem that needs addressing before it gets out of control, they have to preserve the state of the beaches, they are their biggest asset and unless you've got a few billion euros spare to employ extra police personnel to patrol the length of the beaches all night long and maintain the same level of police presence in the streets, what do you do.? How can they enforce this .?

http://www.diarioinformacion.com/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2008112600_16_824315__Benidorm-sector-turistico-aprueba-ordenanza-playas-pero-reclama-flexibilidad
PS: I'm not posting the translated version because there is some undesirable language used in some of the comments.

Sanji

What about fines for all the prats who smoke on the beaches then throw the fag ends on the sand and make the place an absolute disgrace,is this covered?

Spain should rename some of it's beaches Blue fag beaches

What about fines for all the prats who smoke on the beaches then throw the fag ends on the sand and make the place an absolute disgrace,is this covered?

Spain should rename some of it's beaches Blue fag beaches

I'm glad you said some beaches because Benidorm's beach is cleaned every night apart from Christmas day...unlike many other Spanish beaches which are only cleaned once or twice a week ( if you're lucky)
But, the machine being used by Benidorm is well equiped to take out of the sand the fag ends, and in the grand scheme of things, they are not a problem compared to bottles and plastic bags.

They've not had the covetted blue flag, year after year, for nothing. and I've seen people employed on Christmas day to pick up the rubbish near the promenade wall where the tractor cannot reach.

The last time I was on the Levante ,2003 it was full of fag ends.I have been on dozens of beaches in Spain that are classed as Blue Flag and they are covered in fag ends costantly even after their daily clean,have you ever been on the Alicante city beach? That is cleaned every night but is still full of fag ends.
There can't be anything worse than walking out of the sea and standing in loads of fag ends.Smokers have a lot to answer for.

There can't be anything worse than walking out of the sea and standing in loads of fag ends.Smokers have a lot to answer for.

Yeh and so have drinkers, druggies, dog owners.
Same old story yadda yadd yadda

I have never stood on a drunkard or his empty bottles,a druggie and all his rubbish nor a turd from a dog as all these are taken away when the beaches are cleaned if they are present on the beach.In fact the only place I have seen dog mess in Spain is on the prom in Santa Eulalia never on a beach.

There can't be anything worse than walking out of the sea and standing in loads of fag ends.

OK Wayne,let me get this straight.
I mean you haven't been on levante beach for nearly 6 years, you're really going to pick up some dreadful life threatening disease from standing on a pile of tab ends for a few seconds, but standing on broken glass, a disused syringe or getting Toxocariasis from dog poo is fine.
To get back on topic...
Broken glass from the drunkard's is a problem for Benidorm.

got to agree with sanji never had problems on levante beach with fag ends

but have a few times lifted bottles oh and glasses on the beach

and i been going over at least twice a year for past ten years and love levante beach its very clean

My argumrent isn't soley about Benidorm its about the whole of Spain and its blue flag beaches that are littered by the selfish smokers

wayne i think your problem is not the occasional fag end on the beach.

i think your problem is smoking full stop i think you wont be happy till smoking is banned throughout the world in private as well as public.

not sure you will be quite so happy at paying 40 pct income tax to make up for lost revenue by the goverment as a consequence though

I don't think we can really tell what Wayne's opinion on smoking in general is, and neither should we try, as it is not really relevant.

But as you see yourself as someone who contributes to the UK economy by way of taxes on your cigarette purchases, can we assume that you will no longer be taking back any to the UK on your next visit to Spain?