Valencians moving into Phase 2 of the Lockdown on Monday Frown over Beach Restrictions Imposed by the Spanish Government

Officials in the city of Valencia have revealed a raft of restrictions for its beaches necessary to comply with the Spanish Government’s move to Phase two on Monday and the locals aren’t happy!

THE Valencian government yesterday approved the plan for the 2020 season on the city’s beaches that include all the measures to avoid infections of the coronavirus and to keep the public safe.

Starting on Monday, the public will be able to access the sandy areas although they will have to maintain a minimum distance of four metres between the beach umbrellas. In addition, a six-metre corridor between the shore and the first hammocks will have to be respected so that people can walk freely while maintaining social distancing.

As many local residents have said, the beaches will be crowded within a few minutes of opening, there simply isn’t enough room with the sunbeds four metres apart to accommodate them and the expected tourists.

Malvarrosa beach is a 1km-long city beach bordered by a bustling promenade with shops and restaurants, there will be 25 people reporting security measures from Monday to Sunday, although surveillance and capacity control tasks will be handled by to the Local Police.

The councillor for Beaches, Giuseppe Grezzi, who presented the new scheme, explained that accesses and exits have been signposted to guarantee the safety distance of citizens. Grezzi also reported that the seawater has been tested for quality and safety and came back as “very good.”

Risk Management Committee

The RMC will monitor all the services and entities that manage the beaches and which will have to prepare a contingency plan with the measures to guarantee overall safety of the general public. The project, approved this Friday, divided up the beaches and their services depending on the risk-level-assessment of the coronavirus separately.

The management committee will have to control the capacity in the high-risk sandy areas, which are urban beaches, such as Malvarrosa or Cabanyal, due to the vast amount of people that normally congregate there.

In contrast, the risk is low in Devesa, and drops to medium in the rest of the more southern beaches. This plan also regulates the hours of use of the beaches, which will depend on the presence of lifeguards, this allows people to walk and stay outside the ‘playas’ during those hours, although in groups of up to only 15 people.

Walkways, footbaths, and toilets are considered the most dangerous

The City Council considers that access walkways, the footbaths, and the toilets are the services with the highest risk of infection, so it recommends their closure or elimination if the councils or the contracts that manage them cannot guarantee them 100 per cent safe.

In the case of the footbridges, the plan indicates that the risk is associated with the inability to maintain a safe distance between users, especially in Malvarrosa and El Cabanyal, therefore, it asks they be removed on natural beaches and that, in the rest, maybe a double gangway could be installed instead.

The local government has approved an investment of €690,000 to maintain the beaches for this year alone but that figure could change according to needs it said.