The complaints and public denunciations for the continuous presence of scooters in places not allowed, such as sidewalks or pedestrian areas, even at the door of the headquarters of the National Organization for the Blind (ONCE), as denounced yesterday We want to move, it seems that it has penetrated the command of the Local Police of Santa Cruz, which, since last week, as this newspaper has learned, has ordered that all scooters found on the sidewalks begin to be removed. That order, as you have learned DIARY OF NOTICESis having as a consequence that a couple of motorcyclists from the Local Police dedicate themselves exclusively to this task, which involves removing an average of about 40 scooters per day.
Without taking into account the figures for this month of June, so far this year, the City Council had removed from the streets, through the use of the municipal crane, about 160 personal mobility vehicles. A figure that shows on average the withdrawal of about 30 scooters per month, which with the order given by the Local Police Headquarters, will be pulverized in this month of June.
These latest figures have been provided by the Councilor for Security, Evelyn Alonso, to the capital’s PSOE, who has contacted the Department to find out the list of personal mobility vehicles removed from public roads and taken to the municipal deposit, month by month since on November 1, 2021 until May 31 of this year.
A response that is complemented by a previous one, formulated in the Control Commission of the month of May, in which it was confirmed from the Department of Security that these scooters that end up in the municipal deposit continue without paying any type of fee for their withdrawal, since, insists Alonso, “the Tax Ordinance regulating the Fee for Withdrawal of Vehicles from Public Roads with a Crane and permanence in the Municipal Deposit of 2008 does not collect fees for the removal of personal mobility vehicles from public roads with a crane and permanence in the municipal deposit”. He adds the mayor that a new ordinance is being drafted to remedy this situation.
Therefore, the municipal warehouse is currently also a warehouse for the skateboard company, which can leave them at that point for as long as it deems appropriate without incurring any added economic damage for it.
The PSOE has requested the file that supports the explanation given by the councilor for not charging that fee. As for the number of fines imposed, each time one of these scooters is removed, one is imposed. From June 2021 to January of this year, 219 penalties had been imposed, of which 4,600 euros had been collected.
