Maximum confidence, but also maximum demand. Jaume Collboni is determined to address without delay the problem of cleanliness in public spaces, one of the issues that most worries the people of Barcelona, according to the latest municipal barometers, and which has been very present in the 28-M campaign. For this, it has been proposed to immediately increase the pressure on the companies that deal with the service so that they comply with their obligations. The mayor is convinced that if everything stipulated in the contract is carried out, Barcelona will be clean. With this objective, to begin with, the resources devoted to inspection will triple, going from the current 600 weekly controls to 1,800.
Collboni has announced this increase in control this Tuesday to the concessionaires Fomento-Medio Ambiente, CLD, Valoriza and Urbaser, each responsible for one of the four areas into which the city has been divided for this service. The mayor has warned them that the deployment phase, which started a little over a year ago, has already ended, so that breaches of the contract will give rise to greater sanctions than those applied up to now.
The one for cleaning and waste collection is the largest contract that Barcelona City Council has. It has 4,400 workers and its cost for the eight years of expected duration amounts to 2,300 million euros, which means allocating nearly 300 million of the annual municipal budget, which in 2023 amounts to 3,600 million.
In addition to Collboni, the meeting with the concessionaires included the deputy mayors Laia Bonet, responsible, among other areas, for urban services, and Albert Batlle, on whom prevention policies and, therefore, civility depend, who also It has to do with the problem of dirt on the streets. The intention is to hold a follow-up meeting at the highest level every three months – with these councilors – something hitherto unprecedented. The session did not go into detail about the problems detected or the black spots that require more attention, but rather the need to put everything that is necessary by all parties to make the city cleaner. .
"The priority of these first months for this government is to straighten the city and cleanliness is one of the most sensitive aspects," Bonet stressed after the meeting with the companies. "We need the utmost care and that the perception that citizens have, which is what has alerted us, change because the reality behind it also changes and they feel proud to live in a clean city again," she added. "Thus - she added - we have transferred to the concessionaires that we are going to be the most demanding in the fulfillment of the obligations of the contract." The mayor recalled that “in the implementation phase, there is more flexibility, because not all the resources had arrived [there are still some vehicles that are replaced with old ones]; but we are already in the process of consolidating the service and we need to stress compliance with the obligations much more; Now it's time to do it with excellence”.
The inspection of the contract has been done since it began to be applied, mainly, informing the companies with the aim of being able to make the necessary adjustments and improve the service in the first months of its application, which was deployed in two phases; first in March of last year, in Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Gràcia, Sant Andreu and Sant Martí, and then, in September, in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Les Corts, Sants-Montjuïc, Horta-Guinardó and Nou Barris. However, in this time sanctions have been imposed, exactly for 64 breaches, which have meant a total of 40,400 euros.
From now on things will change, Bonet recalled. In case of not acting as stated in the contract, the City Council will impose fines that can range from 400 euros (the first five in the same month) to 2,400 euros from number 16. Practices that have a direct impact on the state of the public space, such as uninformed service changes, changes in the number of people in each team or the presence of full or overflowing containers.
The increase in controls will mean that the thirty people who until now carried out inspection work will go up to a hundred, which will mean increasing the budget for this task from the current 1.2 million euros to 2.2 million. The City Council has already initiated the procedures for this. Likewise, a technological qualitative leap will be made to automate processes so that incident management can be carried out practically in real time and detect malfunctions in the provision of services that must be corrected. The neighborhood brigades will direct the activity to respond to notices and requests for cleaning. This service will be reinforced with nine teams, 18 people, which will be added to the current 50.
The arrival of summer and the greater presence of visitors in the most touristic areas is a critical moment that the municipal government does not want to mean a worsening of the situation. Thus, in recent weeks some reinforcements have already begun to be implemented -with 21 teams and 37 people added to the ordinary staff- to adapt the service and to ensure that there is more cleaning in places where more people are concentrated (stay spaces in the neighborhoods, squares, parks and gardens). Specifically, the coastal zone and the beaches have 51 people distributed in 29 teams in morning, afternoon and night shifts until September 30. Likewise, to avoid the inconveniences generated by the accumulation of waste in the container areas, the number of operators who clean the surroundings has been increased with a total of 13 teams and 21 people. Finally, the use of groundwater in the streets has also been expanded, with 14 teams and 18 people.
