The City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife debated yesterday in the municipal Plenary a motion of the Socialist Party for the municipal regulation of the electric scooter. A motion in which councilor Patricia Hernández assured that the capital has “a problem” with these vehicles and assured that the Consistory is not complying “neither with the municipal ordinance, approved on December 20, 2019, which regulates their use, nor with the fiscal ordinance that requires the payment of a fee to remove any vehicle when it is taken to the municipal deposit.
Hernández assured that, based on the answers provided in the Mobility area, since last November the owners and users whose scooters are withdrawn do not pay this fee. This extreme was admitted by the Councilor for Mobility, Evelyn Alonso, who justified not charging the fee because the tax ordinance is not up to date.
Alonso explained that “until now, the rate for motorcycles and bicycles of 15 euros was applied, instead of the 70 that is applied to cars. But from the Treasury they have warned us that we cannot charge that rate because the tax ordinance does not expressly include personal mobility vehicles (VMP), so changes must be made in the ordinance to be able to charge the withdrawal fee ” .
According to Alonso, the City Council “is sanctioning the lack of civility” by removing the scooters from public roads, adding that “it does not act with a collection effort.”
The former socialist mayor responded that the money that is not being paid by the companies is being assumed by the City Council, “via taxes, making citizens who do not break the rules pay for the bad practices of the companies that rent them.” Patricia Hernández, who pointed out that at the moment there are only six scooters in the municipal deposit, as a consequence of the fact that there is no penalty for removing them by paying these fees, also pointed out that the companies that manage the rental of these personal mobility vehicles lack of civil liability insurance, something that is mandatory according to the municipal ordinance.
Regarding the announcement by the City Council of the creation of 51 parking spaces for these vehicles, as well as the proposal made to companies so that the billing for the time of use ends when it is properly parked, the socialist councilor criticized that they are created only “51 spaces for 1,200 rental scooters, at 10 points in the city, without taking into account scooters for private use.”
From Ciudadanos, its spokesperson, Matilde Zambudio, highlighted that “we have a problem with electric scooters that endanger the physical integrity of citizens.”
The mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, intervened before the vote that ended up rejecting the socialist motion, to point out that “it is up to the technicians, according to the ordinances, to establish the collection of fees.” The local government clarified in this way that the fact that they are not charged is not due to a specific decision, but rather “this government group wants everyone to pay what they have to pay.”
