Rob Horgan
RESIDENTS in Manilva have berated the Town Hall over the lack of police presence in the town.
At the latest local business forum residents complained directly to Mayor Diego Urieta about the lack of officers on the streets as well as the absence of a National Police Station.
However the Town Hall’s response laid the blame at the feet of its residence who have not signed on the Padron.
According to a spokesman the town are only allowed to employ one policeman for every 1,000 residents on the Padron.
Equally a National Police Station can only exist in municipalities where 20,000 or more people are registered as residents.
Estimates show that Manilva does infact have 20,000 residents but as many are not registered on the Padron the Town Hall’s hands are tied.
“People need to be aware that if they are not officially registered to live here that they are stopping the Town Hall from having the resources to implement the improved security that the area needs”, Georgina Shaw from Shaw Marketing Services said.
“Signing up to the padron is really easy and it is not linked to the taxation system, or any other legal register, so there’s no reason not to do it.
“The Foreigners’ Department can help you do it if you don’t speak Spanish and we all need to encourage as many people to register as possible to get the budget and resources required to make Manilva an even better place to live and run a business.”
If you buy or rent in Spain you should be automatically added to the Padron and remove yourself when appropriate.
The levels of law and order, health, investment and other fundamental services should not constantly depend on the padron. All we ever hear about in Spain is this damned padron. Now Diego Urieta is blaming the lack of police on the padron. It has become farcical, but then what else do we expect? If a person has resedencia and pays IBI etc, they should automatically go on to the padron. It’s not rocket science, but then again in a country where a third of people think the Sun revolves around the earth perhaps we ask too much.
Re: Registration on Padron vs Local Police EFFECTIVENESS – there is NO relationship. From what I see around San Pedro, Marbella, et al – Local Police do nothing, not even ENFORCE laws on the Promenades (see the Looky – Looky salesmen?), local streets traffic violations, etc. A waste of $$.