<![CDATA[Ara in English - ghost kitchen]]> 10 <![CDATA[Fire]]> Not long ago, there was a fire on my street. It woke me up in the middle of the night. I opened my eyes and the room felt like a nightclub. The wall lit up and went out to the rhythm of a burst of electric blue light that passed through the curtains. I went to the window. I saw a police car in front of the house, its lights flashing. I got dressed and went out to the street to do some reporting. The street was cordoned off. There were two fire trucks with a dozen firemen trying to break down a door. Many neighbors I knew were watching the spectacle.

]]> <![CDATA[Barcelona vetoes new dark stores and forces dark kitchens out onto industrial estates]]>

The controversy generated, now over a year ago, by the appearance of the first two projects for huge dark kitchens in Barcelona led the City Hall to impose a temporary moratorium on this activity, with licenses for this kind of businesses suspended. But then came dark stores, which are warehouses where online purchases are prepared for distribution and are not linked to a particular shop. Now Colau's government has announced a new regulation that bans this kind of supermarkets – although it cannot act on those already in operation – and forces dark kitchens out onto industrial areas under very restrictive conditions: they will have to be on streets over 25 metres wide, may not be next to housing and must be separated by at least 400 metres. They will be able to open under these conditions in the Zona Franca and Besòs, but not in 22@, which is not considered an isolated zone. Projects already which already stalled in Sant Martí and Les Corts will not go ahead because they do not meet the requirements.

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