Esgos requires prior communication three days in advance to cut wood

The Esgos City Council has definitively approved the municipal ordinance regulating the cutting and removal of timber, which requires loggers to submit a prior notification at least three days before the start of the work and to detail the timber transport data. The Plenary agreement is dated October 1, 2026, and the full text is published in the Official Provincial Gazette of Ourense on October 21, 2026, in section IV. Local Entities, with official reference 352797 (R. 2.370).

The publication is made for the purposes of article 70.2 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, regulating the bases of the local regime. The ordinance will enter into force once its full text is published in the provincial gazette and the period provided for in article 65.2 of the same law has elapsed. An administrative-law appeal may be filed against the agreement before the Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Galicia, based in A Coruña, within two months from the day following the publication of the announcement.

The objective of the regulation is to reconcile freedom of enterprise and the development of the forestry sector with the preservation of the natural environment, the conservation of municipal roads and tracks, and road safety. The definition of “cutting and removal of timber” is broad: it covers everything from preparatory operations (deployment of vehicles and machinery, construction of ramps or access to plots, land preparation) to subsequent ones (preparation and deposition of timber, loading and transport, storage and management of cutting residues).

Prior notification and required data

The notification shall be submitted to the electronic registry of the City Council or through any of the means specified in article 16.4 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, and persons obliged to interact electronically with the administration must do so via that route. The document shall be signed by the logger and must include:

• Identification of the forest owner and the logger: name, surnames, DNI or NIF, address and telephone; in the case of companies, CIF, address and responsible person.
• Species of timber and metric tons planned for extraction.
• Name of the plot or forest, place and parish, with identification on the cadastral map.
• Planned start and end dates of the work.
• Vehicles and machinery to be used.
• Place of timber deposition awaiting loading, transport routes and planned date for transfer.
• Planned system for the cleaning of affected public roads.
• Permit, authorization or responsible declaration before the competent administration, including the body, date and file number, when required.
• Copy of the civil liability insurance and the last paid receipt.

The City Council will provide a standardized form (Annex I) and may require a formal notice of notification when it verifies that the logger has not submitted the communication.

Obligations on tracks and economic guarantee

The logger must clean and remove waste every day at the end of the workday, so that tracks, paths, and public spaces remain in the same prior state of conservation, and signal the roads in the extraction and deposit areas in accordance with traffic regulations. Using public roads as timber storage is prohibited, and it is mandatory to level and restore open ramps to prevent water and dragged earth from flooding the paths. Earthworks are also not permitted.

Anyone who does not have civil liability insurance must establish a guarantee in cash or a bank guarantee in favor of the City Council, the amount of which will be fixed by the municipal technical services based on the weight of the wood, the machinery, the length of the route, and the state of the roads. The guarantee will be returned, upon a favorable technical report, within a maximum period of one month from the communication of the completion of the works.

Sanctions up to 3,000 euros

The ordinance classifies infractions as slight, serious, and very serious:

• Slight: up to 300 euros.
• Serious: between 301 and 1,500 euros (failure to submit the prior communication, leaving roads in a deficient state, or causing damages of less than 6,000 euros).
• Very serious: between 1,501 and 3,000 euros (failure to submit the notification document, leaving roads in a very deficient state with road risk, or causing damages exceeding 6,000 euros).

Sanctions will be imposed by the Local Government Board in serious and very serious cases, and by the Mayor’s Office in slight cases, always with an adversarial proceeding. Simultaneously, the responsible party will be required to repair the damages within a period not exceeding one month; if not complied with, it will be executed subsidiarily at the expense of the offender.

The regulation directly affects forest owners and logging companies operating in the municipality, who from now on must plan the felling with a three-day margin and justify the destination and transport of the wood. The City Council thus reinforces control over an activity with a direct impact on the state of rural tracks and the safety of local roads.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Ourense, October 21, 2026, section IV. Local Entities (official reference: 352797, R. 2.370).