Mérida rectifies the low-emission ordinance and includes private security

The Mérida City Council has published the rectification of the final approval of the municipal Ordinance regulating the low-emission zone to expressly include private security vehicles among those authorized to access, circulate, and park in the restricted area. The correction is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Badajoz No. 211, dated November 4, 2026, via Announcement 4321/2026. The error affected Annex II of the regulatory text, which has been in force since September.

The origin of the error in Annex II

The final text of the ordinance was published on September 23, 2026, in the Official Gazette of the Province of Badajoz No. 182 (Announcement 3689/2026), after the Corporation’s Plenary approved it in the session of May 28, 2026. According to the announcement published now, a drafting error was noted in Annex II, which did not include the allegation presented by APROSER, which had already been accepted in the initial approval of January 21, 2026.

The rectification affects section 2 of Annex II, relating to vehicles that require limited municipal registry authorization for access, circulation, and parking. In that section, the following must be expressly listed as service vehicles providing emergency and essential services:

• Private security vehicles.

The announcement is signed by the Mayor of Mérida as of the digital signature date, and the correction introduces no other changes to the regulatory text.

Municipal registry and authorizations

The ordinance does not grant free access to these vehicles, but rather places them under the limited registry authorization regime. According to the articles published in September, vehicles in section 2 of Annex II may access, circulate, and park in the low-emission zone provided they are registered in the municipal registry of authorized vehicles, with a time limit until a certain date and with continuous or discontinuous effects in months, days, and hours.

Authorizations are revoked, among other scenarios, due to the expiration of the term without renewal, failure to meet requirements, change of ownership, voluntary withdrawal, or fraudulent use. In cases requiring a prior resolution, the interested party has a maximum period of fifteen business days to present allegations. When the need for access is unforeseen, the application may be processed within a maximum period of five business days from the event that motivated it.

Control, sanctions, and calendar

The ordinance supports the restriction in Law 7/2021, on climate change and energy transition, which requires municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants to establish low-emission zones, and in Royal Decree 1052/2022, which regulates this instrument. Access control is carried out through automated technical means of license plate identification, with prior human verification of sanction proposals and an exit period of at least thirty minutes for those who enter by mistake.

Unauthorized access is classified as a serious infringement, punishable by a fine of 200 euros, which may be increased by up to 30% in the event of recidivism declared by a final resolution within a period of one year. The sanctioning regime will be applied to each category of vehicles six months after the restrictions become materially applicable to them and the automated control system is operational; until then, communications will be for informational purposes. The entry into force of the regulation was conditional upon its final publication and the expiration of the period set forth in article 65.2 of Law 7/1985, regulating the bases of the local regime.

Impact for companies and residents

The rectification clarifies the situation for security companies operating in the center of Mérida, which are thus covered by the registration authorization regime provided for essential services, although they must register their vehicles in the municipal registry to benefit from it. For residents of the delimited area, the change does not alter the general access conditions or the implementation schedule, but confirms that Annex II will be interpreted in accordance with the allegation accepted during the initial processing.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Badajoz, No. 211, November 4, 2026, Local Administration (Mérida City Council), page 2 (official reference: Announcement 4321/2026).