The Motril Town Hall has just announced that 2013 will see up to a 200% increase in the price of fines in blue-zone parking areas. It’s not an across-the-board increase, however but depends on the type of infraction.
For example, if you park without obtaining a ticket, the fine goes up from 24 to 60 euros, whilst the fine for overstaying your time allowance goes up from twelve to 40 euros. The highest rates are those for manipulating a parking ticket or using a residential pass for an unauthorized vehicle.
The Town Council justifies this leap in the fine price tag as a mere bringing up to date, claiming that the previous fine costs didn’t even cover the administrative work behind them. “It just was not workable as the price of printing the fines and paying the staff was greater than the fine issued,” explained the Councillor for Transport, Manuel Ballesteros.
Furthermore, the Town Council points out that the increase is below the rate recommended by Dirección General de Tráfico in 2010. They also say that the new prices are similar to those charged in Almuñécar.
Naturally, the opposition does not see it that way; the PSOE and IU consider this price hike a manifestation of bad management of the service. The IU, for example considers that the Town Council should better manage the company that regulates the blue-zone parking in Motril. “It’s not right to increase the fines by 250% just so that you can guarantee the minimum profit covered in the leasing contract,” said IU Spokesman, Felipe Villa.
Sr. Villa went on to add, “I cannot understand how there can be a deficit when Motril is being strangled by blue zoning. We are very much afraid that the Town Hall does not exercise rigorous and exhaustive control over the company that has the blue-zoning contract.” He also said that there is no report that indicates the number of inspections carried out on the said company.
Consequently, the IU call on the governing party (PP) to improve their management of the service and that instead of increased prices, it would be more practical and “honest” to go after the “millions of unpaid parking fines,” which have slipped through owing to the governing party’s “inefficiency.”
The PSOE, on the other hand, point out that there are blue-zone areas where hardly anybody parks and the small income generated by them hardly covers the running costs of the company, who then demand compensation from the municipal coffers. According to the calculations of the PSOE, the Town Hall could be losing around 350,000 euros a year thanks to a badly drawn up leasing contract.
“The eagerness of the PP to seek an income led to blue-zones being assigned to areas where hardly anybody parks and the terms stipulate that if minimum takings are not achieved then the Town Hall would make good the difference. Consequently, every year the municipal coffers has to hand over around 250,000 euros,” assured the PSOE local party leader, Flor Almón.
(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)