Inventive ways of municipal fund raising …

[Michael]

We should be thankful that they haven't yet discovered the sacred cash cow of them all. Pay and display, well not in Santa Cruz anyway.

Oh I don't know, you've got the dreaded grua. 

[Janet]

Puerto de la Cruz Ayuntamiento has unanimously given initial approval to a new bylaw to enforce street cleanliness, which will see fines of between €100 and €750 for a range of activities in the street. These activities include using them as a public toilet, throwing cigarette ends, feeding animals, car washing, not picking up animal mess, writing graffiti, placing publicity leaflets, spitting, and shaking carpets or other fabrics. Even watering plants on the outside of buildings is now forbidden unless between midnight and 8am.

Further offences, to incur fines of between €751 and €1,500, will include throwing rubbish in any public areas, emptying buckets of water in the street, throwing anything out of a moving vehicle, leaving rubbish outside bins, burying animals' bodies on private land without prior authorization, or abandoning vehicles. The highest fines, of between €1,501 and €3,000 will be for transporting without adequate protection materials which could scatter on the public highway, the abandonment or spilling of dangerous substances, or burying animals' bodies in public spaces.

There will now be a month's public exposition of the regulations before it is finally approved. JA

[Pelinor]

Scratching my head at this on Janet. Most of the things described should be, or are, on the statute book anyway? Litter, dog fouling, graffiti, spitting and I know washing your car in the street was  illegal when Franco was around. Hazardous loads I have no doubt come under some EU law. As I say scratching my head?
The only thing I can come up with is that the passing of these by-laws now enables the Police Local to issue the fines and they go directly to the council? Other than that it seems a waste of paper.

[Janet]

The only thing I can come up with is that the passing of these by-laws now enables the Police Local to issue the fines and they go directly to the council

Spot on, G.

[Janet]

Despite denials at high level in La Laguna that fines were not to be imposed for bathing outside lifeguard hours on the municipality's beaches, and despite insistence at high level in La Laguna that all that was being envisaged was a warning that people bathed outside lifeguard hours at their own risk, it is now clear that fines are indeed envisaged after all, as I posted on the first post below. Article 19.4ff of the new bylaw, indeed, shows that fines will start at €750, the "offence" being  considered "serious":

[Pelinor]

Ah! so it's not a ban on going to the beach it's a fine if emergency services are mobilised to help people who fall into difficulty outside the life guards working hours. Which I suppose is fair enough. Isn't there another thread on this about people being charged by emergency services if they have to be rescued? It would seem that La Laguna is giving out fines as well as charging people for the emergency services.

[Janet]

no, I don't read it like that, G. It's a fine for those who bathe outside of the hours set for the emergency services, i.e. lifeguards ...

[Perikles]

I find this absolutely weird. How can any authority fine you for bathing in the sea? How could this be in any way illegal?

[Nova]

My thoughts exactly P, nobody can own the sea 

[Michael]

My thoughts exactly P, nobody can own the sea 

But then again, some hotels have 'private' beaches.