The graffiti artists owe Barcelona City Council nearly 200,000 euros. This is the amount of unpaid fines for dirtying the urban furniture and the facades of the city’s buildings during the last four years. The municipal group of the PP demands that the Consistory toughen the sanctions presented by virtue of the civility ordinance and that those reported who do not face them are forced to repair the damage, to clean their own graffiti.
According to data provided by the City Council itself and gathered by the public, between 2020 and 2023 the agents of the Urban Guard processed up to 2,070 fines for this concept, and of all these, up to 1,352 were unpaid. We are talking about a delinquency rate of close to 85%. The Consistory barely collected 34,011.38 euros out of an amount of 225,200 euros. So the accumulated debt during this period is 191,188.62 euros. In addition, the latest data, detailed this week by La Vanguardia, still do not point to a clear change in trend. During the first four months of 2024, the City Council presented up to 109 sanctions for these concepts. So far the graffiti artists have only voluntarily paid 37.
“Mayor Jaume Collboni’s inability to enforce the civics ordinance is causing the defacement of walls and urban furniture to take to the streets of Barcelona – affirms popular councilor Daniel Sirera-. So we need to toughen the civility ordinance so that those who break it know that not only will they have to pay a significant fine, but they will also have to bear the cost of cleaning it up or cleaning it up themselves. Barcelona must once again be a city of law and order”.
One of the objectives of Mayor Collboni’s government for the current term is the reform of the civics ordinance, which dates from 2006 and for some time now seems a little outdated. The idea is to update it and focus it on the problems of public space that really alter the daily life of citizens. The Urban Guard and the City Council’s cleaning services have the graffiti underlined in red. One of the objectives of the Endreça plan is to stop the proliferation of graffiti that the city is suffering from. Every day, the Council dedicates around 500 hours of work and nearly 22,000 euros to removing posters and stickers from public spaces. And the socialist executive also intends to accompany the new civics ordinance with payment mechanisms that improve its effectiveness. A fine that is not collected becomes wet paper. Throughout his life, the main drawback of this regulation was the non-payment of a large part of the penalties.
The data collected illustrate these circumstances. The graffiti artists’ debts have only increased in recent years. In 2020 they left 20,435.67 euros outstanding; in 2021, 45,493.73 euros; in 2022, 50,200.91 euros, and in 2023, 75,058.31 euros. Other relevant figures. During this period, the City Council opened up to 464 files for these concepts to citizens of foreign nationality. Only 54 paid the fine. The urban legend that uncivilized tourists do whatever they want and then happily return to their countries also has little statistical basis.
