ARCHIVED - Murcia Town Hall votes on new regulations to clamp down on unauthorized car park attendants

The police will be allowed to fine the “gorrillas” up to 3,000 euros and relieve them of their takings

The wheels of government turn slowly in Spain, but after a long gestation period it appears that the Town Hall in the city of Murcia is now ready to introduce legislation which will allow the local police force to take action against the “gorrillas”, the unauthorized self-proclaimed car park attendants who attempt to relieve motorists of cash for supposedly helping them to find a space and keeping a watchful eye on their vehicles.

In July of this year councillor Eduardo Martínez-Oliva, who heads the Town Hall department of Citizen Safety, stated that his staff were working on a new regulation and that “we will take action to avoid serious problems”, while on just one day the Policía Local reported that complaints had been received about 9 “gorrillas” who were harassing members of the public and urged those experiencing problems of this nature to inform the police by calling 092.

Four months on, Sr Martínez-Oliva says that he is signing 16 procedural documents related to the issue every day, but that this Thursday the Town Hall will finally pass a motion empowering the police with the support of the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox political parties, although without the approval of PSOE and Podemos, who are demanding more “social” measures. Assuming the council does vote in favour of the new regulations, there will then be a period of 30 days in which objections can be raised and suggestions made, and it is anticipated that the rules will come into force in January.

Until now the reason for the inability of the Murcia police to deal with the nuisance caused by the “gorrillas” is that their activities are only loosely covered by the national Road Safety Law, but the text of the proposed regulations makes it explicit that what they do is illegal. This makes it possible for police officers to relieve the unauthorized attendants of any money which they have obtained from their activities, the intention being for the funds to then be diverted to non-profit-making organizations and charities.

The police will also be authorized to confiscated the “tools of the trade” used by the “attendants” such as sponges and cleaning fluids with which they offer extra services such as windscreen cleaning, and the fines payable are to be raised to up to 3,000 euros – a level which is comparable to those introduced in other cities such as Sevilla, Alicante and Burgos.

In the past there have been occasional reports that the local police in Murcia and other municipalities are clamping down on the activities of these “gorrillas”, but they have been unable to rid supposedly free car parks of them (and others where drivers pay for parking tickets and are then asked to pay again by the attendant!), partly because it is difficult to fine them on account of their not having any registered ID details. The majority are immigrant men aged between 20 and 40 hailing from sub-Saharan and northern Africa and eastern Europe, and the police have been quoted as reporting that in 5 per cent of the cases where identity is requested by the officers issuing the fines this results in irregularities being detected in the legality of their presence in Spain.

Unfortunately, until now the police have only stepped up the level of attention they pay to these individuals when there is an incident such as the one in November 2018 near the Paseo del Malecón which ended with one of the “gorrillas” suffering a punctured lung, or another in January when one attendant slit another’s throat.

It should also be pointed out that although it might be imagined that “gorrillas” is a term applied to them in reference to the large ape species, this is not the case. Instead it is derived from the word “gorra”, or cap, and is a reference to the fact that they go “cap in hand” demanding money from drivers. In Spanish, as in English, the large ape is spelt with only one “r”!

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