Coastal authority of Andalusia has announced plans to enforce a 1988 law designed to prevent construction within 100 yards of the waterline. An estimated 500 bars and restaurants in the Malaga province alone have been built on the sand in contravention to planning regulations, authorities claim. Around 300 of them will be forced to close when their concessions end next year. Javier Hermoso, the chief of beaches on the eastern Costa del Sol, said closing the bars and clearing the coastline had become his main objective since taking office in September. "It will be a long complicated process because nothing has been enforced for 20 years," he told local newspaper La Opinion de Malaga. Critics of the move fear that the clamp down will lead to huge job losses at time when the area is already suffering a downturn in the tourist industry. "We are talking about making 7000 people out of work in Malaga alone with this move," said Norberto Del Castillo, of the Federation of Beach Businesses of Andalusia. Others said it would drive tourists away. "A beach without a beach bar is one lacking the essential elements," said one commentator in Malaga. "They are a tourist must-have. Eating and drinking with the sea nearby and one's feet in the sand is one of greatest delights of the beach."
