Bars and restaurants, war breaks out at outdoor tables in Rome

In Rome, the operators of bars and restaurants are on a war footing, a reason for disputing the denials that are coming to put the tables outside the premises, in order to recover the heavy losses suffered due to the closures and restrictions for Covid. From Prati al Pigneto there is a rain of waste from the offices of the Mobility and Traffic Department of the Municipality of Rome. And therefore traders are ready to appeal. “We are evaluating to present appeals to the TAR, also to the Council of State and, if necessary, to promote a class action to win the battle for the tables outside”, Claudio Pica, president of Fiepet Rome and Lazio, announces to the Adnkronos. “There are several denials from the Mobility Office that reject hundreds of requests in various central and peripheral areas due to the fact that many roads are considered to be of the Highway Code in the list of the Highway Code, therefore, the officials pose a problem of mobility and road safety referring to the national standard – explains Pica – and this despite the resolution of the Capitoline assembly in May authorized the placement of tables also with platforms and umbrellas in tariff zones (blue stripes), notwithstanding various constraints ” . “There will be 600-700 people who have received the refusal to put the tables outside, there are many cases that come to us from the associates” adds Pica. The offices of the Rome Mobility Department, led by Pietro Calabrese, “is too rigid and does not recognize the emergency of the measures adopted, it goes against the national rule of helping public businesses. It is a paradox, when acknowledges being among the categories most damaged by the Covid emergency “. According to Fiepet, fast-flowing roads can be considered the Cristoforo Colombo or the Via Flaminia (towards outside Rome), just to give a few examples, but “unfortunately there are several streets such as viale Mazzini, via Fabio Massimo but also via La Spezia or piazza Malatesta in Pigneto, in via Acqua Bullicante where there are traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, parking lots, and they are not dangerous “complains Pica. The exhibitors who have invested thousands of euros to set up platforms, umbrellas and railings, up to 10 thousand euros per venue, feel “mocked” underlines the representative Fiepet. The restaurateurs and bartenders have spent from 3,000 to 10 thousand euros for umbrellas, the railings alone cost from 200-400 euros per linear meter, so for a 15-meter fence you spend over 4,000 euros. In addition, Pica underlines, as regards the tax for the occupation of public land which is now called the ‘single occupancy fee’, it is suspended for the whole year but Fiepet invites the Capitoline administration to “give certainty with an ordinance that will abolish completely the norm for the payment of the tax, at the moment there is a deferral to July 31st. The ordinance that transposes the national norm is not yet there. We would not want us to be asked to pay months in the end “.