One side in the world’s sunbed wars has just received extra ammunition, from authorities on the Spanish coast who have said they will swoop in and fine anyone trying to reserve prime waterside spots in the early morning.
The dispute between those who rise early and save space on the beach by spreading out a towel before wandering off, and those who arrive later only to find an empty beach and no free space to sit down, is a perennial one. But now the town council in Calpe, on Spain’s Costa Blanca, is making an intervention, telling beachgoers who try to hog the sands that they could face a fine of €250.
Responding to complaints
“For some years now, the Town Council has received numerous complaints during the summer about the reservation of space on the beach, as when users arrive at the beach mid-morning they find metres of beach occupied without the owners of the elements installed being present,” a council statement says.
As a result, setting up chairs, sunbeds and parasols before 9:30 am has been banned under a Municipal Ordinance for the Use and Management of the Coastline. The council is not looking to take sides in the night-owl versus early-bird battle royale, but it does want its beach cleaners to be able to do their job properly, it says. Leaving unattended paraphernalia on the beach “makes it difficult to clean the beaches, so the ordinance establishes that all items installed on the beaches before 9:30 am may be removed and the owners denounced.”
As well as awarding the powers to remove items left in the early morning, the new measure means anything left unattended on the beach for three hours or more at other times of day can be confiscated too. “This measure prohibits the indiscriminate occupation of the public domain” the council statement explains. Confiscated possessions will be held at a municipal depot in the town.
Battle for Spain’s soul
The regulations are just the latest episode in Spain’s ongoing battle for the soul of its beaches and cities. Tourism brought in around 187 billion euros and contributed about 12.8% of Spain’s GDP in 2023. But the country’s Mediterranean and Atlantic islands have seen protests and guerilla anti-tourism signage, and its cities have regulated against rowdy tourist groups, among claims that tourists are to blame for a host of issues facing locals, from rising housing costs, to noise pollution, spoilt coastlines, and even the undermining of nudism culture.
