Ibiza holiday CRACKDOWN sees new rules to STOP Britons partying on San Antonio

Councillors are set to slash two hours off the closing times of music bars and discos in the town’s West End area where thousands of Britons party every day in summer as part of a war on drunken tourism.

Its plans to make the area an Area of Special Acoustic Protection next year will also affect the opening hours of cafe and bar terraces.

Up until now music bars and discos in the West End could open till 5am in the summer and 6am in winter.

But under the noise reduction plans they will have to close at 3am.

Terraces that opened till 2am will have to shut at 11pm next summer.

The new timetables are due to be voted in at a full council meeting in February.

Mayor Josep Tur, who unveiled the plans today with two council colleagues, said they were designed to improve San Antonio’s image.

Drug dealers from Britain descend on the West End every summer so they can control the sale of ecstasy and cocaine to holidaymakers from the UK.

Many British-based gangs move part of their operations to places like San Antonio and Magaluf in Majorca so they can take advantage of the summer season in Spain.

Members of two British drugs gangs accused of dealing in the West End area were arrested in September and cocaine, cannabis resin, ecstasy and hippy crack seized during raids within days of each other.

Council chiefs have openly admitted they feel the West End has devalued San Antonio’s standing.

The crackdown announced today follows a study this summer which revealed the noise level was up to 85.9 decibels – more than 20 decibels above the legal limit.

As part of the strategy to bring the West End into line, nightspot owners will also be ordered to soundproof venues and install noise limiters.

A moratorium will also be introduced on the opening of new bars and clubs until noise levels are reduced to acceptable levels.

San Antonio’s councillor for the environment Pablo Valdes has called the noise levels in the West End in summer “monstrous.”

The 85 decibels recorded in the area in the tourist season have been compared to the noise emitted by a Boeing 737 one mile from landing.

Measures to tackle excess noise were introduced in Majorca’s Brit-popular resort of Magaluf this summer, with new regulations to limit music noise in establishments.

Councillors there are also trying to clean up its Punta Ballena party strip, branded “500 metres of shame” by a former mayor, after they realised drunken tourism was affecting the image of the whole resort.