City in Italy declares war on beach operators – mayor warns: “Your time is over!”
Follow us on Google
A comment about beach users brings new fuel to an old debate in Bacoli. Now the mayor is promising a “revolution.”
Naples – In Naples, residents in the Posillipo area are currently enjoying an unusual beach idyll: the weather is already good, but the beach resorts in three licensed sections have not yet started operating. Locals can therefore use these beaches for free, but for a brief moment they belong to everyone. As soon as the beaches open, high prices for loungers and other offers become due. Naturally, this is regularly a hot topic, which has now gained new fuel in the nearby municipality of Bacoli.
Josi Gerardo Della Ragione, the mayor of the municipality of Bacoli in the Naples metropolitan region, reported on Friday (July 10) a case in which a beach operator apparently described users of the free part of the beach as “destitute”. The information could not be independently verified. The politician announced that in the future 80 percent of the coast should consist of freely accessible public beaches or equipped public beaches.
Mayor of Bacoli wants to enforce stricter rules
According to the mayor, there will also be new concessions for kiosks on equipped free beaches and for beach resorts. These would be awarded through public tenders and provided with clear rules. “Without favors for friends, but based on performance,” said the politician in a message on Facebook. Gone are the days when beach operators could charge prices for sunbeds “as if they were made of gold,” the mayor wrote.
Referring to the beach operators, the 39-year-old continued: “Bacoli doesn’t belong to you. The beaches don’t belong to you. The sea doesn’t belong to you.” He promised citizens more protection and rights. “This is how we will free the beach promenade from unscrupulous profiteers. It will be a revolution. Because your time is up,” the 39-year-old continued.
Not every free beach is completely free: Bacoli debate revolves around important differences
Ragione had already announced something similar beforehand. Critics also complain that the mayor of Bacoli expresses himself ambiguously. In fact, there are three categories: completely free beaches, freely accessible beaches with paid services such as loungers, bars or private areas, and classic beach resorts, which usually charge an entrance fee. Like the local paper Cronaca Flegrea reported, the proportion of completely free beach sections in the draft for Bacoli is only just above the regionally prescribed minimum proportion of 30 percent – and not 80 percent, as the mayor had conveyed on social media. (Sources: Facebook, Cronaca Flegrea)