Llançà City Council will place video surveillance cameras at the entrances and exits of all the urbanizations in the municipality, which are practically empty in the low season.
Of the total number of homes in this tourist town on the Costa Brava, two out of every three register zero or very sporadic electricity consumption, according to Idescat data. It means that no one lives there for much of the year, a fact that leaves room for thieves and squatters, who in the last season have generated several problems of coexistence with the neighbors.
In the last plenary session, the City Council approved allocating an initial amount of 40,000 euros during 2024 to the installation of these security devices, which according to the mayor, Núria Escarpanter, would have a merely “deterrent” function. Currently the municipality has several cameras between the old town and the port area and the City Council plans to invest in more devices over several years.
The objective would be to prevent thefts and especially criminal occupations, a problem that had worsened since the pandemic and that has recently been minimized with the eviction of several occupied properties in the center of town and the port area. The squatters were mainly young people of North African origin, some with drug addiction problems and who, according to neighborhood sources, are dedicated to drug trafficking.
Some controversial occupations that had generated alarm, concern and a lot of discomfort among the neighborhood due to the problems of coexistence and incivility that they caused. Constant arguments and noises, insults, death threats and even some aggression are some of the conflicts listed by the residents of Llançà, which has nearly 5,000 inhabitants.
“Some had even thrown excrement and urine from their balcony and even a microwave at the neighbors across the street,” says Eduard Ramon, president of the Merchants Association, who highlights some small theft, mainly of food and drink in supermarkets.
“It has been more of a neighborhood problem, of public disorder,” says Ramon, who highlights “the call effect” generated by the large number of uninhabited homes in the low season and the ease of communication in Llançà, thanks to the train, which is the arrival of many of these squatters.
According to data from Idescat, 73% of the homes in the municipality – which has about a dozen urbanizations – are not primary, so they are uninhabited for much of the year. In some, like Fener de Baix, only three families live throughout the year, as Ramon explains.
The latest evictions have reduced neighborhood unrest. “The interventions that have taken place so far have provided security; rather than a feeling of fear, what existed was concern,” says Joaquim Figa, a retired former pharmacist, whose pharmacy is located very close to one of the occupied floors.
The situation had led some neighbors to adopt self-protection measures, according to Mariona Guix, from the Associació de Veïns of the Cap Ras urbanization. “Although I don’t know of any occupied houses in this area, there is a certain nervousness and insecurity, and many of us have set up an alarm service, a fact that for me was unimaginable years ago,” she explains.
Neighborhood councilor Albert Comellas assures that a large part of the criminal activities are related to drug trafficking. “Instead of having a low profile and dedicating themselves to their crimes, they generate problems of coexistence,” he says and highlights the increase in controls and police pressure during this mandate.
