Cástaras delegates waste collection to the Provincial Council indefinitely

The Cástaras City Council has delegated to the Provincial Council of Granada, with indefinite temporary validity, the provision of the essential public service of municipal waste collection and transport, including sanctioning powers. The agreement was approved by the Plenary in an ordinary session on September 28, 2026, and is now published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Granada number 211, dated October 30, 2026, with the official reference BOP-GRA-2026-211005. The delegation enters into force the day after its publication, although the material provision of the service will not begin until the procurement process is concluded.

Until now, the Cástaras City Council itself provided the service, by virtue of articles 26.1 a) of Law 7/1985, of April 2, regulating the bases of the local regime; 9.6 of Law 5/2010, of June 11, on local autonomy of Andalusia, and 12.5 of Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy.

The framework of the operation is the plenary agreement of the Provincial Council of Granada of September 25, 2025, which arranged to coordinate the municipal solid waste collection service among the city councils that provided their consent, for reasons of effectiveness, efficiency, and economy, under article 26.2 of Law 7/1985 and article 36.1 c) of the same text. That agreement definitively approved the Regulatory Ordinance for the Provision of the Municipal Waste Collection Service, published in the Official Gazette of the Province number 198, of October 17, 2025. The Cástaras Plenary adopted the decision with the favorable vote of the absolute majority of the legal number of members, in accordance with articles 22.2 f), 47.2 h), and 47.2 k) of Law 7/1985.

All powers, including sanctioning

The delegation is not limited to the material provision of the service: article 1.1 of the provincial ordinance includes the powers of regulation, organization, management, and sanctioning, and the agreement approved by Cástaras specifies it in a catalog of prerogatives assumed by the Provincial Council of Granada:

• Regulatory and self-organization powers.
• Programming or planning power.
• Expropriation and investigation, demarcation, and ex officio recovery powers of its assets.
• Presumption of legitimacy and executability of its acts.
• Forced execution and sanctioning powers.
• Power of ex officio review of its acts and agreements.
• Non-seizability of its assets and rights, with the priorities and preferences inherent to the Public Treasury.

Public road collection and start pending contract

The agreement adopts option A provided for in article 11 of the ordinance, focused on public road collection, which comprises:

• Selective collection of bio-waste and collection of the residual fraction.
• Separate collection of packaging, paper-cardboard, glass, textiles, oil, and batteries.
• Collection of bulky waste.

The first clause establishes that the Provincial Council of Granada will begin the effective provision once the necessary files are completed, especially the service procurement process, such that the delegation will not be effective until that date. The amount per final ton will depend on the number of municipalities to which the service is provided. A clarifying note dated December 17, 2025, further specifies that, in municipalities without a fixed clean point, bulky waste from electrical and electronic equipment will be collected along with bulky household items and separated later at transfer centers, while for small-sized items, the Provincial Council will study routes for mobile clean points.

A municipal tax that will pay the real cost

The City Council commits to paying the Provincial Council of Granada the effective cost of the service, calculated by multiplying the tons collected and transported by the cost of each ton, with quarterly settlement and subsequent regularization based on the waste actually treated. To cover this, Cástaras will collect the tax and is obliged, pursuant to Article 11.3 of Law 7/2022, to maintain in force a specific, differentiated, and non-deficit tax that allows for the implementation of pay-as-you-throw systems and includes the real direct and indirect cost of operations, their maintenance and surveillance, and awareness campaigns. Payment must occur within the deadlines of Article 62.2 of the General Tax Law, after which the Provincial Council may offset credits in favor of the City Council against the generated debt.

Revocation will only be possible if the City Council justifies to the Provincial Council that it can provide the service at a lower effective cost, and it is obliged to reimburse the expenses incurred, including compensation to the contractor. Disputes shall be handled by the contentious-administrative courts of Granada, and data processing is subject to Law 3/2018 and Regulation (EU) 2016/679. The document is signed by the mayor, María Yolanda Cervilla Sánchez, dated October 22, 2026, and empowers the councilor to execute the necessary acts.

The change has a direct effect on the neighbors’ pockets: Cástaras ceases to manage waste with its own means and becomes part of the provincial service, which will bill it for the real cost of each ton and may issue sanctions in its name. The trade-off is a municipal tax that can no longer be deficit-ridden and must reflect the effective cost of the service, with the added risk that the quality and frequency of the service will depend on the procurement processed by the Provincial Council.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Granada, number 211, of October 30, 2026, Local Administration, page 42 (official reference: BOP-GRA-2026-211005).