One year after the deadline to launch low-emission zones (ZBE) in towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants, 17 of the 24 Madrid municipalities that are required to have at least one active still do not have them and four do not have them. They have not even started the procedures.
This is reflected in the map on the situation of the ZBE of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco), which shows all the obligated municipalities and island territories; establishes three categories of ZBE based on their level of implementation (current, in process or pending); and shows that something similar happens in the rest of the country.
Of the 151 Spanish municipalities (including those in Madrid) that were required to have at least one low emissions zone, only 15 have at least one ZBE in force while 28 are still in the pending box; the rest is in the processing phase.
The group of achievers from the Madrid region, which only included Madrid capital and Rivas Vaciamadrid, has been joined by Torrejón de Ardoz.
At the opposite end are Aranjuez, Arganda del Rey, Coslada and Valdemoro, according to Miteco.
Aranjuez and Valdemoro have coalition governments of PP and Vox; In Arganda the PP governs, and in Coslada the PSOE does.
In the riverside city, the municipal government indicated a few months ago that its town is "quite peculiar" as it is the southernmost term and the second largest area in the region (201 km2), in addition to having almost 30,000 trees.
However, the municipal Executive assured that they are working with the Local Police and with different companies in the implementation of a future low emissions zone, although they consider that they do not reach high levels of pollution.
Furthermore, he adds that they will be "completely surgical" in the implementation of the future ZBE, which is why they have commissioned a study to analyze the situation so that it is as "most reliable" as possible to the needs of Aranjuez and "does not restrict the freedom of movement of the neighbors".
In Arganda, according to municipal sources, the City Council considers that there is no "real possibility" of implementing a ZBE due to the configuration of its urban area.
After indicating that they are going to respond to the Ombudsman's request for information on this matter, the same sources have assured, however, that there is no refusal to implement the ZBE, but they defend that "it must be studied" case by case and not establish the norm solely by the population.
In Coslada, municipal sources have assured that they are "finalizing" the low emissions zone project and that it will begin processing "shortly." The goal of the government team is for the zone to be up and running on January 1, 2025.
According to the same sources, the pollution in Coslada is mainly due to external factors, and they cite that it is close to the capital, the Barajas airport and logistics centers; But they maintain that the City Council is going to do "whatever is in its power" to improve air quality and in this line the low emissions zone "is going to play a fundamental role."
And in Valdemoro, the mayor of the town, David Conde (PP), has told Efe that when they arrived at the municipal government, last June, the matter was "very green", but in recent months a Round Table has been established. Mobility where, with all the parties involved, they are working to "land" the standard to the municipality.
Conde has emphasized that the historic center of Valdemoro is "attached" to the A-4 highway, so it is a "peculiar" situation that must be studied, since even if a ZBE is implemented a few meters from the highway, pollution levels "would always be high."
"A more or less high peak of pollution in the city will be difficult to control and requires a specific study, because the meters will always show high emissions, even if we prevent vehicles from circulating in a certain area," argued the mayor, who has detailed that 120,000 vehicles pass through the A-4 daily, 20,000 of them heavy.
Even so, he affirms that they do not want to break the law, but that it is necessary to study how to "land a very generic law" in a municipality with the peculiarities of Valdemoro, so as not to implement a ZBE that goes "against the neighbors themselves."
Beyond the capital, where a new restriction on road traffic has now been added to the Central District and Plaza Elíptica ZBEs throughout the municipal area, including outside the M-30, only Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Torrejón de Ardoz have low emission zones in force in the region.
In Rivas, the ZBE is in school environments exclusively. And in Torrejón, the ZBE is in the implementation phase and delimited, according to the municipal ordinance, between Virgen de Loreto, Constitución, Fronteras and Madrid street avenues.
The rest of the municipalities present projects in the development phase, plans that will foreseeably see the light of day this year.
