The images speak for themselves. Numerous garbage bags, some open and scattered around the containers, in different parts of Santa Cruz. It doesn’t seem like something casual, or the accumulation that sometimes occurs when the containers are full, but something done conscientiously. This way of acting has been detected by the Public Services technicians in the night inspections that they carry out in different parts of the city to assess the operation of the cleaning service. What they have found in the last two weeks, and they have sent it to the councilor of the area, Carlos Tarife, is that they have detected several people (two men and one woman) who are dedicating themselves to rummaging through the containers of waste leaving the area in “terrible cleanliness conditions”.
The area in which this behavior has been detected is in the neighborhood of La Salud, specifically in the surroundings of the La Indias park. The streets inspected are those of Eladio Roca Salazar, Subida Cuesta Piedra, Juan Rumeu García, Francisco Aguilar y Aguilar and Juan Álvarez Delegado.
Carlos Tarife assures that the City Council will establish a surveillance service to identify and sanction activities like these that disfigure our environment, “I promise a firm hand in this matter.” An affirmation that he reiterated in the Control Commission held this morning, in which he assured that these behaviors (those of searching and depositing garbage outside the containers) will be prosecuted by both the Public Services technicians and the Local Police. . The mayor recalled that “the two issues are punishable, both leaving the garbage out and rummaging, there are also indications that there are people who are doing it on purpose in those environments, and we are going to get serious with the investigations with an issue that seriously affects to the service, to the image of the city and to the neighbors”.
The articles of the current cleaning ordinance that would be breached would be 18 and 36. The first refers to the prohibition of throwing waste, packaging and in general any type of bulk waste on public roads, in their accesses and in fenced or unfenced lots or farms, and street cleaning elements (containers, litter bins, etc.) must be used, whenever they exist. The second article is related to the presentation of the waste, which must be done in plastic bags or non-recoverable containers, duly closed, which will later be deposited in the containers.
The Councilor for Public Services also reported yesterday at the Control Commission, where he appeared at the request of the PSOE that no penalty has been imposed on the cleaning company, Valoriza, for failing to comply with the award specifications. “There are no penalties of any kind, which is not the same as deductions from the contract for incidents detected.” Tarife recalled that in 2021 more than 6,000 incidents were registered, which meant for the company almost 600,000 euros less in its contract, by exceeding the average that it offered itself. The councilman advanced that the data corresponding to the first six months of 2021 will be available shortly, which “will be better than last year’s,” he assured.
From the opposition, all the groups criticized that with this level of incidents no type of sanctioning file has been opened to punish the company. The spokesman for the PSOE, José Ángel Martín, pointed out that “seeing how the city is, we are surprised that there is no reason to initiate a file.”
