In the absence of votes to go ahead with large-scale projects, the municipal government of the socialist Jaume Collboni has, during the first eight months of his mandate, made the improvement of cleaning and the maintenance of public space the main banner of change in the City Hall of Barcelona. The fight against graffiti that projects an image of the city’s neglect is, in this context, one of the priorities of the minority government, as evidenced yesterday by the Deputy Mayor of Security, Albert Batlle, in the presentation of the new tag and graffiti cleaning contract. Even before it began to be deployed, last year – half with the mayorship of Ada Colau, the other half under the command of Jaume Collboni – the number of complaints grew by 48% and went from 328, in 2022, to 484, in 2023. In the same way, the amounts of the sanctions increased by 66%, mainly as a result of the application of the maximum punishment provided for by the civics ordinance, established at 500 euros per violation .
The launch of the new contract, which La Vanguardia already reported on February 1, increases by 17% the financial resources that will be allocated to the cleaning of graffiti and paint stains, the removal of posters and the removal of banners and other elements from the public road. In total, there are 16 million euros for this year and the next.
The new contract also allows for an increase of more than 30% in the number of staff dedicated to the removal of graffiti, up to 36 teams dedicated specifically to this task. One of the novelties is that, for the first time, the cleaning of graffiti on furniture and other elements of the urban landscape is included, such as fountains, planters, information boards, railings, bicycle parking or street name plates.
It also includes the cleaning of facades of heritage buildings cataloged as a cultural asset of local interest, urban interest or documental interest (protection D, C and B). Buildings considered cultural assets of national interest, which require more specific cleaning work, are excluded from this service.
Until now, the planning of the cleaning tasks had been done through the detection of graffiti by the municipal teams and the requests that came from the neighbors. With the new contract there will be areas where cleaning will be done with a certain frequency, every four months as a general rule, but it will be monthly in places that require special attention.
Technology is also being incorporated into the fight against the plague of graffiti. It will do so, starting in April, by using a tag identification program that will make it possible to know which paintings are the work of the same author. This tool will also be available to the Urban Guard.
Albert Batlle explained that the increases in resources and the control of infringements will be accompanied by an intensification of campaigns that include calls for civility and citizen responsibility to avoid “dirty walls with graffiti”. “This is an image that as a city we cannot afford”, said the deputy mayor.
