The Madrid City Council closed the El Retiro park on Sunday afternoon on the grounds that the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) had established a red alert due to the forecast of high temperatures of more than 36 degrees and strong gusts of wind.
Complaints soon came through social networks, since it is the largest park located in the center of the capital that offers large areas of shade on days as hot as those at the end of June. La Vanguardia explains why this great park and nine more are closed.
The mayor has announced that the Madrid City Council’s Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility delegate, Borja Carabante, will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, with those responsible for the municipal groups in this matter to study a possible modification in the municipal security protocol that forces the parks to close during days of extreme heat.
The Madrid City Council chooses to close El Retiro when the AEMET establishes the red alert forecast. This red alert indicates that “there is a very high probability of falling branches and trees in gardens.” It forces the closure of parks that have gates and whose trees are at greater risk of inclement weather. Other gardens cannot be closed due to their idiosyncrasies, but notices are posted in the same direction.
This policy of setting levels was established by Manuela Carmena and her municipal government team in 2019. Later, the current environment team of the current mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has maintained it in the last legislature. And he has started the new road map for these next four years applying the same criteria.
The reasons for setting levels was that in 2014 two dramatic events occurred. In June a 38-year-old man died after a branch fell on him, and a month later a girl was injured when a tree fell next to a bench. In 2018, a child died when a tree fell on him. At that time, the protocol was modified and a more rigorous one was established.
Mayor Manuela Carmena and her municipal government team changed the regulations. First, a working group was established due to the social alarm generated and later, in March 2016, the first protocol began to be applied, which was incorporated into the tree master plan. A few years later, on June 6, 2019, a specific plan called “protocol of action in the face of forecasts of exceptionally adverse weather situations and management of incidents caused by the trees of the Buen Retiro gardens in Madrid” was approved on June 6, 2019. “.
There are four alert levels that indicate different degrees of danger depending on the forecasts of the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). Green corresponds to that situation in which none of the meteorological factors exceeds the established minimum threshold. Yellow indicates that there is no risk for the general population, although it would imply a certain probability of falling branches or trees. Orange indicates that there is a significant risk with a higher probability of falling branches and trees. In this case, eviction is recommended and risk areas are marked off. This is what has been established this Monday in the El Retiro park. The red level establishes that there is a very significant risk of falling branches and trees in the gardens. It implies the closure of the parks temporarily. Later, the environmental services of the capital have to review and after their inspection it is opened if everything is correct. This is what happened this Monday, after the review first thing in the morning.
