Puerto del Rosario gives initial approval to new vehicle recovery fee ordinance, updating rules in force since 2004

Puerto del Rosario Town Council gave initial approval on Monday, at a plenary meeting, to a new ordinance setting the fee for the vehicle recovery service that transports vehicles to municipal depots. The update will bring the regulations and fees into line with the municipality’s current situation.

The approval was included as item 8 on the agenda of the ordinary plenary meeting held in Casillas del Ángel. It updates rules whose fees had remained unchanged since 2004.

The documentation accompanying the file says the review is prompted both by the need to update fees that no longer reflect the current cost of the service and by a sustained increase in the number of vehicles removed from public roads.

Between 2018 and 2025, 3,124 vehicles were removed, averaging 390.5 operations a year, with 413 services carried out in 2025.

The main reasons for these operations include vehicles parked illegally across marked permanent driveways, vehicles without compulsory insurance, traffic offences and cases of vehicles abandoned on public roads.

Puerto del Rosario Mayor David de Vera said: “We are updating regulations that had gone more than two decades without being adapted to the municipality’s needs. Puerto del Rosario has changed, as have its mobility and traffic needs, and we need tools that enable us to provide this service under clear and appropriate conditions.”

De Vera added: “This is part of the work we are doing to organise and update various municipal services, giving them greater legal certainty and tools suited to the way the city operates today.”

Nearly 400 vehicles removed each year

Traffic councillor Jenifer Pérez said: “The vehicle recovery service is necessary to maintain mobility and respond to situations that directly affect safety and the proper use of public roads.”

Pérez explained: “The figures show that the service is consistently busy, with nearly 400 vehicles removed each year. It was therefore necessary to update an ordinance whose fees had not been reviewed since 2004 and to adapt it to different types of vehicle and the service’s current requirements.”

The financial report prepared for the change assesses various criteria for setting the new fees. These include actual service activity recorded in the municipality, current operating costs, the change in the consumer price index (CPI) since 2004 and the different material requirements involved in removing each type of vehicle.

The ordinance also distinguishes between the recovery and transport service itself and the subsequent storage of the vehicle at the municipal depot, which is covered by separate fiscal rules.

The ordinance must now undergo a public information period

Following its initial approval by the plenary, the amendment must now proceed through the legally required public information and publication stages before it can finally come into force.

The municipal website continues to publish the currently applicable fiscal ordinance for the vehicle recovery service in its section on fiscal ordinances. The new measure updates those rules.