The Mayor of Seville, Antonio Muñoz, announced today that the City Council, through the management of urban planning and the environment and in a coordinated and complementary work to that carried out by Lipasam, will allocate 1.3 million euros per year for the removal of anti-vandalism paint, as already envisaged in the draft municipal budget for 2023. This initiative is in addition to the continuity of investments in the improvement of machinery and technical and human means planned for the public company and the review of the municipal cleaning ordinance, including participation The process with neighbours, businesses, particularly those related to commerce, hotels and hospitality, and municipal areas began today with a series of working groups convened at the Civic Center Entreparques (North District).
Current regulations limit Lipasam’s actions in terms of removing vandal graffiti, focusing on those that are offensive or made in public space. On the other hand, the possibility of acting on facades or private spaces is more restrictive, even if specific work teams have been set up. For this reason, the decision of the municipal government, according to Muñoz, is that urban planning and environmental management reinforce this work, through the creation of a vandal paint removal service for the entire city. and with particular emphasis in the old City.
The model, based on previous work and analyzes carried out by Lipasam in recent months, establishes the creation of 10 teams of two professionals each (a facade treatment officer and an assistant), as well as a centralized service which is responsible for detect graffiti, plan work, respond to requests received and analyze special cases. In fact, a restorer with a fine arts degree will even be incorporated for these vandal paintings done in heritage environments. These teams will intervene in public or private spaces to protect the urban landscape. “In summary, we are going to encourage municipal services to also clean private facades with the prior authorization, of course, of their owners. It is a response to citizen demand to which we are responding through this change of model and the addition of a management service specific to Lipasam”, according to the mayor, who was accompanied by the public cleaning delegate and the education, Marisa Gómez, and the North District delegate, Juan Antonio Barrionuevo.
While these new teams are activated, the service provided by the municipal public cleaning company itself will be reinforced from the beginning of 2023, by integrating the staff of the Youth Employment Plan now that they are hired in the neighborhoods.
Antonio Muñoz also reviewed the strategy for improving cleanliness in the city of Seville through Lipasam and the coordination between the different public services launched since the beginning of the year: the hiring of 120 people to increase services and actions throughout the city; the start of two new contracts to reinforce sidewalk cleaning with new machines in all districts; a renovation program for deteriorated containers with a specific system to clean them and the environment where they are located, the neighborhood maintenance improvement units through the Joven Ahora work plan, which work in coordination with Lipasam and municipal services still performing complementary tasks; the increase in public awareness and awareness actions, and the strengthening of the tasks of inspection and review of public spaces in coordination between Lipasam and the local police for the detection of infractions.
This whole Lipasam strategy will be intensified in 2023, according to the draft budget prepared by the city government. In fact, next year’s accounts are looking at the highest amount the company has had in the past decade. In total, 108.7 million euros, 4 million more than in 2022, “a growth that will allow us to continue strengthening all the work we have done, to have more personnel, more investments and new programs to improve urban spaces”, Antonio Muñoz detailed.
The Mayor of Seville attended the beginning of the work of participation in the Civic Center Entreparques around the revision of the Municipal Cleaning Ordinance of the City Hall of Seville, which dates from 2014, “and which, in our opinion, has become obsolete in some respects and, therefore, does not offer an adequate response to the needs of the public”. All citizens can participate in this process through an open consultation via the website, but specific working groups have been generated today today from which conclusions must be drawn that allow us to face this situation “with solvency, rigor and maximum efficiency”, which are intended to be developed in 2023.
This modification of the ordinance concerns both offenses and penalties as well as the regulatory framework established by the municipal ordinance. In this debate, the possibility of an aggravation of the penalties for uncivil attitudes will be discussed, in particular the collection of dog excrement or the abandonment of garbage bags or personal effects, the contribution of certain sectors to intensive use of public space , such as the hotel industry, commerce and specific activities or events, or the adaptation of regulations in order to strengthen recycling.
Neighborhood entities, hotel sector associations, hotels, tourist residences, the various municipalities concerned in this area, from Taxation to Tourism, including Parks and Gardens and the Local Police, as well as waste managers participate in these working sessions. environmental associations. “The process we are carrying out is a broad, open and flexible debate in which all participants will be able to debate on all the issues they consider. This is about all of us participating and designing a better cleaning and waste collection service for our city,” the mayor concluded.