The special permits that have allowed the hospitality industry to expand its terraces on the sidewalks and roads of Madrid will continue, at least, a month longer than expected. The Terraces Commission has approved this Tuesday morning the extension of the calls COVID terraces until January 31, as confirmed by Deputy Mayor Begoña Villacís in statements to the media.
“The sixth wave places Madrid in a situation very similar to when we expanded the expansion of the terraces, we once again have the need for the hospitality industry to sponge, to avoid concentrations,” Villacís explained to justify his decision, taken due to that the impact of the pandemic is at record levels of contagion in Spain this week.
The hoteliers were awaiting the municipal decision on the extension or not of the special permit to expand their hospitality terraces, since this Friday was the last day scheduled to continue enjoying the advantages granted during the pandemic, including the increase in capacity of the premises in the public space, with thousands of new tables on sidewalks and roads of the capital.
In practice, the extension of the terrace permits will allow bars to celebrate the second part of Christmas in the open air and without any restriction to the hotel industry or in capacity or hours, which the Community of Madrid has ruled out despite the advance of infections COVID. It will also mean that those located in the most conflictive points of the city – known as saturated areas – will be able to operate for another month instead of definitively collecting on New Year’s Eve.
The special extension of the measure adopted in the Terraces Commission -which depends on the Territorial Coordination area, responsibility of Citizens- comes in full negotiation of the new ordinance, which the Government team finalizes with the councilors of the Mixed Group, with whom They have also just closed the Budget agreement for 2022.
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