Vinebre approves the regulations for the towing service and the municipal vehicle depot

The Vinebre City Council has definitively approved the establishment of the municipal service for the removal and deposit of vehicles from public roads and the regulation that governs it. The council’s Plenary adopted the agreement on October 26, 2026, and the text is now published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Tarragona on November 6, 2026, with the official reference CVE 2026-10144. The new regulation establishes the cases in which a vehicle may be removed, the procedure for notifying the owner, and the obligation to pay the current fee to recover it.

The processing began with a needs report on February 16, 2026, which requested the opening of a file to establish the service and a report from the Comptroller’s Office regarding the economic impact. That report, issued on February 18, 2026, concluded that the council will have financing capacity in terms of budgetary stability and financial sustainability once the service is assumed.

The initial approval of the establishment and the regulation was published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Tarragona on March 4, 2026, with a public exhibition period of 30 business days to present allegations and suggestions. According to the announcement, no allegations were presented after this deadline, meaning the Plenary agreement of October 26 closes the processing. The edict was signed by the mayor, Sandra Rico Juan.

A service assumed under direct management

The statement of reasons for the regulation justifies the decision based on the characteristics of a small municipality, with a population of approximately 500 inhabitants, narrow streets, limited parking areas, and spaces shared between vehicles and pedestrians. In this context, improper parking can affect road safety, hinder the passage of emergency vehicles, impede access to garages, or limit the mobility of people with reduced mobility.

The Vinebre City Council assumes the activity as its own in the exercise of its competencies regarding traffic and mobility, and will provide it through direct management. The regulation is based on the local autonomy recognized in articles 137 and 140 of the Constitution, articles 86 and following of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, and articles 4, 25, and 26 of Law 7/1985, as well as Royal Legislative Decree 6/2015, which approves the revised text of the Law on traffic, circulation of motor vehicles, and road safety, and environmental regulations on end-of-life vehicles.

The objectives that the text attributes to the service are five:

• Maintain road discipline regarding parking.
• Guarantee traffic safety on roads with reduced sections or limited visibility.
• Protect spaces designated for pedestrians and ensure universal accessibility.
• Remove abandoned vehicles that may cause degradation of public space or environmental problems.
• Preserve coexistence and the proper use of municipal streets and squares.

Grounds for removal and impoundment at Calvari Street

Article 3 of the regulation lists, by way of example, the cases in which the removal of a vehicle from the public road may be agreed upon:

• Violation of current traffic regulations.
• Immobilization of the vehicle.
• Accident.
• Abandonment.
• Transfer by the owner.
• Judicial, police, or other authority orders.
• Stolen vehicles.
• Removal due to exceptional signaling.
• Other cases of emergency, urgency, or necessity.

Removed vehicles will be deposited in a closed enclosure enabled for this purpose, located at 1 Calvari Street, under municipal ownership. Authorized council personnel may carry out the removal and transfer when the party obligated to do so fails to do so, always in accordance with traffic regulations.

24-hour notice and vehicle recovery fee

The procedure includes the suspension of the removal if, at the moment of execution, the driver appears and ceases the disturbance that motivated it. Once the vehicle is in the impound, the city council must communicate the removal and impoundment to the owner within twenty-four hours, preferably through the road electronic address if available.

If the owner does not have a road electronic address, communication must still be attempted within twenty-four hours of the vehicle’s entry into the impound, and any means that leaves a record of the intention to communicate the incident will suffice. Both the communication and the attempt must be recorded in a list enabled for this purpose, indicating the body making it, the date, and the time.

The removal and impoundment generate the obligation to pay the fee collected in the current fiscal ordinance, which the regulation does not quantify. The vehicle is returned to the owner or a previously accredited authorized person after payment of the fee. For everything not provided for in the regulation, current traffic regulations apply.

The regulation arrives in Vinebre with immediate practical scope for residents: for the first time, the municipality has its own formal framework to manage improper parking and abandoned vehicles in a network of narrow streets, and it sets deadlines and guarantees for the affected owners. The agreement also closes the administrative procedure opened in February, which was intended to verify the financial sustainability of the service before making it effective.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Tarragona, no. 6 of November 2026, section I, pp. 1-3 (official reference: CVE 2026-10144).