Residents and holidaymakers in and around Vilamoura are at their wits’ end over the “excessive noise” from local outdoor nightspots which they claim are robbing them of their sleep.
Among those suffering sleepless nights is Adriano Pimpão, president of Loulé’s municipal assembly and former dean of the University of the Algarve, who lives 2.5kms from the resort’s night attractions.
Speaking to Público newspaper, Pimpão said he has spent €10,000 on triple-glazed windows for his house to keep out the noise and slams the lack of action by the authorities.
Several complaints, including one from the Tivoli Victoria Hotel last Friday, have been made to Vilamoura’s GNR police, but they claim they “do not have the legal means to act”.
Around 11 outdoor nightspots opened in Vilamoura for the summer, all of them located just metres away from each other and closing their doors at around 6am-7am each day.
Residents say “loud, thumping music plays all through the night, and when the wind is blowing, the noise can travel several kilometres, sometimes even being heard in inland areas”.
For the last two years, Pimpão has been trying to bring the matter into the council’s agenda.
His complaints led to the creation of “municipal regulations for noise”, which came into effect in January. But the results are “far from the expected”, he told Público.
Councillor Ana Machado explained that all these nightspots are equipped with devices that monitor noise levels. If the levels go above what is allowed, an alarm goes off automatically.
But so far, none appear to have gone above the maximum levels allowed.
Pimpão has suggested outdoor nightspots are only allowed to make noise until midnight on weekdays, and 2am on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, but the proposal was not approved by the municipal assembly.
Meantime, the local GNR have handed a list of recommendations to the president of Loulé’s municipal assembly concerning this topic, one of them to try to establish new rules that see the maximum number of decibels that outdoor nightspots can emit lowered.
