10 March 2019 - As requested by the citizens of the Capital, the Liberal Party of Podgorica has prepared an initiative to change business hours of food and beverage facilities in residential buildings or other collective accommodation facilities during the winter period from 8 am to 11 pm, and in the summer from 7 am to 11 pm without the possibility of extension.
Liberals will ask for a revision of the Decision to convert housing into business premises in buildings.
"This initiative primarily relates to food and beverage facilities located in residential buildings or other collective accommodation facilities. In the previous period, the Liberals of Podgorica organized meetings with the citizens of the Capital to determine which problems had the greatest impact on the quality of life in the city. A significant number of citizens’ complaints was related to noise from food and beverage facilities – cafes, bars and night clubs located in residential buildings or their immediate vicinity," says Jovan Rabrenović, president of the Board of the Liberal Party of Podgorica for CdM.
As Rabrenović explained, the problem is especially accentuated in older residential buildings where the subsequent conversion of apartments into business premises enabled the opening of food and beverage facilities. Therefore, the Liberals prepared a proposal for the Assembly of the Capital City, requesting the revision of the Decision for the conversion of residential into the business premises in buildings. Rabrenović also added that the Liberal Party requested the amendment of the Decision on business hours, so that the work time of the catering facilities should be limited to the timeframe from 8 am to 11 pm in the winter, and from 7 am to 11 pm in the summer period.
An additional problem, as the Liberals’ data from the citizens’ interviews show, is the food and beverage facilities where food is prepared and which do not have any insulation and ventilation or the ventilation is extremely poor. The result of this problem is the inability to protect the residents from the smells from the kitchen of these facilities.
“After inspection control, all such facilities should be ordered to either correct the defects or stop preparing food in poor conditions. In this way, using the comparative practice of other countries that have solved these problems in the same way, the residents of the Capital will be provided with enough time for an unhindered rest, as the noise from the cafes and the crowd surrounding them in the parking lots will be significantly reduced or even eliminated. Liberals, as part of the responsible city authorities, will do everything in our power to provide the citizens of Podgorica with adequate living and working conditions, and one of the priorities is certainly solving this problem with the work of restaurants and similar facilities," said Rabrenović.
