The deputy-coordinator of VOX Almuñécar, Marta Nogueras, has accused the governing party of a “lack of foresight and of improvising,” over policing and other safety measures during this fiesta week.
The reasoning behind her concerns regarding the Feria de la Virgen de la Antigua, is that the contract with a company providing the service concluded months ago and the Town Council had not opened a new tender.
She said that her party had managed to find out that the Mayor’s Cabinet had reached an agreement with a company on the 7th of August to cover safety at the Fair. However, this company was unable to provide its services on Sunday as it did not have authorisation from the Central-Government’s provincial office.
Consequently, the Cabinet reportedly informed the company that their services were no longer required and gave the security/safety for the entire Fair to another company, which is, allegedly, also working without necessary provincial-level authorisation.
“We want to know how it is possible that a company was unable work owing to a lack of authorisation and is replaced by another that is allegedly in the same situation,” she pointed out, adding, The Town Council must explain what administrative coverage the current service actually has.”
As far as the Feria de Día is concerned, Almuñécar Town Council had announced that 16 private security guards would be deployed during fiesta week, in addition to four Policía Local patrols, two plainclothes patrols, five Guardia Civi patrols, as well as Protección Civil and medical assistance. Vox, however says that the company is using “service assistants rather than qualified security guards.”
Now, if you are wondering what ‘service assistants’ are in this case: a service assistant in a security company is a worker who performs auxiliary tasks of control, information, concierge services, access control, and preventive maintenance. They do not perform private security functions or have the power to arrest anyone or use force, as their work does not replace that of a licensed security guards.
Another point she raised was, if the fairground and Fería del Día was soaking up personnel from the Policía Local, how many were left for normal municipal policing.
“We are talking about an event that brings together thousands of people; especially young people. Policing and safety cannot be improvised on the very day. The Partido Popular [governing party] knew for months when the Fair was going to be held and had the obligation to arrive at these festivities with all services planned, authorised, and guaranteed,” Marta Nogueras concluded.
So far, there has been no comment from the Mayor’s office, according to Vox.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Keywords: Insufficent Safety Measures, Policing, Fairground Fería de Día
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