Cameras can now define their “30 zones”, but still cannot verify compliance. The Government wants to extend to others 307 municipalities, a competence that only Lisbon, has received.
The city council of the capital has the possibility to inspect the speed of cars in its urban space. There is an intention, there have already been informal conversations, but the measure that fits the process of competences from the central State to the municipalities has not yet been designed.
The Secretary of State for Local Authorities, Carlos Miguel, recalled the numbers of road accidents in 2021: there was 29.217 accidents with victims, 390 of which mortals, wherein 23.244 of these accidents (80%) took place in urban space.
The government official argues that this competence should pass to the autarchic sphere since, Recently, city councils have also been given powers to regulate parking and order traffic in urban areas.
And if the councils can define in which areas of their towns the traffic speed should be reduced to 30 kilometers per hour, they must also be able to monitor compliance with these rules and “penalize those who do not respect them”, says the Secretary of State.
Who pays for the radars? The conversation has not yet reached the point where this question arises, but Carlos Miguel is convinced that it will not be problematic. Even because, looking at the case of Lisbon, It is an investment with a short-term return., points.
Speaking to journalists, the official explained that this task could be carried out by the municipalities themselves through radars, in cooperation with municipal inspectors or in collaboration with the PSP or GNR.
There have already been talks with the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities, who sees “with good eyes” this new competence, says the person in charge, but the measure is still being worked on in a process that also involves the Ministry of Internal Administration. This dialogue phase should be completed by the end of the year, esteem Carlos Miguel, and only then goes to the Council of Ministers.
The Secretary of State also announced another measure related to these new powers that the municipalities have been assuming. The chambers will have the possibility to delegate in the intermunicipal communities (CIM) competences in terms of regulation of parking in urban space.
In other words, when transferring the treatment of fines to the CIMs, there are functionality gains but not only, noticed Carlos Miguel. For example, two jurists can handle the fines of 14 counties. “We will also have – and I am not naive about this – political gains: we no longer have mayors signing fines to have CIM secretaries-general, who are someone that few people know”, examined.
News: Lidador News/Public
