There are more than 500 rental electric skates (some estimate even more), which move through the streets of Santa Cruz. As if it were a plague, they have colonized sidewalks, squares, streets and any place of passage where the companies that rent them estimate that they will attract more attention to potential users. Precisely, the placement in points where parking is prohibited (sidewalks, pedestrian streets or zebra crossings) has caused the complaint and indignation of citizens, who bump into these vehicles that, on many occasions, prevent the passage of people with reduced mobility.
The complaints led the Santa Cruz City Council to increase the pressure on these companies, sanctioning and removing those vehicles that were parked incorrectly. The result of this greater attention to what happens with electric scooters in the city by the Local Police is that in six months and seven days, from June of last year, until the first week of January, they have been removed to the warehouse. municipal 171 vehicles, and 306 fines have been imposed, of which only 43 have been collected.
To these numbers is added that the recovery of the scooters from the municipal deposit has meant almost 1,000 euros of income for the municipal coffers. Bearing in mind that the deposit withdrawal fee is 15.82 euros and that another 4.42 euros are charged per day of stay, the companies have recovered at least 62 scooters, so more than a hundred should remain in their hands. of the townhall.
These data were provided by the area of Security, Mobility and Accessibility of the Consistory of Santa Cruz, whose owner is Evelyn Alonso, to the PSOE in response to questions from the Socialists on this point that is causing so many neighborhood complaints.
The result is that the bulk of the scooters withdrawn occurred from that same month of October, when they were taken to the warehouse 37, to add 68 more in November, 45 in December and 18 in the first week of this month of January.
Exactly the same thing happens with sanctions. It is from October when the number grows considerably. Thus, if in June 2021 13 fines were imposed, in October there were 82, and in November, 100. In December the number of sanctions fell to 79 and in this first week of January 16 have been imposed.
As usually happens with the collection of penalties, this is much lower than the imposition of the same. If it is estimated that the fine for parking badly is about 200 euros and if all the penalties that have been paid were for this reason, the City Council, with the 43 collected, would have entered about 8,000 euros.
Regarding the collection of fees for removing the scooters from the municipal deposit, according to the data provided by the Security and Mobility area, although 45 scooters were removed in December and another 18 were removed in this first week of January, the companies have not recovered none of the 63, since the income from fees both in December and so far in January is zero euros.
PSOE criticism
From the PSOE, the former mayor Patricia Hernández criticized the low rate of collection both for sanctions and for the removal of scooters maintained by the City Council. “While any citizen whose car is taken to the municipal tow truck must pay both the fine and the removal of the vehicle, it seems that companies find it profitable to leave them in the municipal warehouse,” criticized Hernández.
