Traffic Department assumes the authority to sanction urban infractions in Villalba de Rioja

The Provincial Traffic Headquarters of La Rioja will assume, as of November 14, the authority to sanction traffic violations committed on the urban roads of Villalba de Rioja. The decision responds to the express request of the Villalba de Rioja City Council, which claimed not to have sufficient municipal services to exercise this authority. The agreement is published in the Official Gazette of La Rioja no. 220, Friday, November 13, 2026, within section III of other provisions and acts, with the reference III.4315 and secure verification code BOR-A-20261113-III–4315.

The Plenary approved it on November 2

The file, processed under number 202611110125582, stems from the Agreement of the Plenary of the Villalba de Rioja City Council dated November 2, 2026, in which the Council resolved to request the Provincial Traffic Headquarters to assume the sanctioning authority within its municipal district. The provincial body considers “justified reasons” and the “exceptionality” of the request to be proven, and supports the existence of a situation of insufficient municipal services that prevents the ordinary exercise of this power.

The agreement was signed in Logroño on November 10, 2026, by the provincial head of Traffic of La Rioja, Beatriz Zúñiga Reinares, and consists of two pages, 19281 and 19282 of the provincial gazette.

What changes and what does not in the municipality

The invoked legal framework is as follows:

• Article 84.4, third paragraph, of the consolidated text of the Law on Traffic, Motor Vehicle Circulation and Road Safety, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 6/2015, of October 30, which allows provincial heads to assume the authority of mayors when it cannot be exercised by them.
• Article 25.2, section g), of Law 7/1985, Regulating the Bases of the Local Regime, which attributes matters of traffic, parking, and mobility to the municipalities.
• Article 7, section a), of the traffic law itself, regarding the regulation, organization, management, surveillance, and discipline of traffic on urban roads under municipal ownership.
• Article 45 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure, which supports the publication of the agreement in the official gazette.

The assumption of authority is limited: it comprises only the sanctioning of traffic violations and the processing of the corresponding sanctioning files, since, according to the text, the processing always corresponds to the Administration that adopts the resolution. The organization and control of traffic on the urban roads of the municipal district will remain a municipal competence, with the general exceptions of current legislation, as will the surveillance and reporting of violations.

Without financial compensation and indefinite validity

The Headquarters Agreement is structured around four points:

• Assuming the sanctioning authority on urban roads within the municipality of Villalba de Rioja at the request of the City Council.
• Conducting the instruction of the sanctioning proceedings without financial compensation from the General Directorate of Traffic to the City Council.
• Publicizing the agreement in the Official Provincial Gazette, in accordance with Article 45 of Law 39/2015.
• Commencing the exercise of the authority the day following its publication, that is, on November 14, 2026.

The exercise shall be maintained as long as the City Council of Villalba de Rioja does not make an express declaration to reassume the transferred authority or as long as the Provincial Traffic Headquarters does not perceive the disappearance of the circumstances that motivated the exceptional assumption.

The change directly affects drivers traveling through the urban center of this Riojan municipality, who from now on will face proceedings processed and resolved by the state Administration instead of by the City Council. The publication in the official gazette closes the administrative route of the municipal request and marks the effective start of an authority which, due to its exceptional nature, remains conditioned on the persistence of the lack of local means that justified it.

Source: Official Gazette of La Rioja, no. 220, November 13, 2026, section III, pp. 19281-19282 (official reference: BOR-A-20261113-III–4315).