The Council of District II of L'Hospitalet will meet extraordinarily on Thursday, May 21, at the Collblanc-La Torrassa Cultural Center to address insecurity and incivility in the area, following a shooting in a premises on Rambla Catalana and a stabbing on Mare de Déu dels Desemparats street.
The session comes after the request of the municipal group ERC+EUiA and in a context in which the neighborhood considers the measures planned for this summer insufficient. The tension lies in the gap between the institutional response and the perception of residents who link the problems to overcrowding and the high population density of the neighborhood.
It will be the second time in this term that District II holds an extraordinary council. On the agenda is the follow-up of actions in coexistence and security, along with summer devices that include the deployment of civic agents, the radar safe space, and police reinforcement.
ERC+EUiA forced an extraordinary plenary session after the shooting and stabbing
The call occurs after two recent incidents in very specific points of the district, Rambla Catalana and Mare de Déu dels Desemparats street. Both events have reopened the discussion about the response capacity in Collblanc-La Torrassa.
In addition to those cases, neighborhood complaints extend to daily coexistence problems. Jofre Rojas, president of the Collblanc-la Torrassa Neighborhood Association, maintains that warnings have been coming for some time and that changes have not materialized.
"For a long time we have been warning, because the problem is not from yesterday, but it manifests itself gravely today. Sometimes it's very nice to talk, to meet, everything is wonderful, but we don't see changes" - Jofre Rojas, president of the Collblanc-la Torrassa Neighborhood Association
Rojas places among the usual complaints noise, the use of scooters and a high degree of crime. She also cites as an example the presence of a man with a machete on Paris street.
Residents place overcrowding at the center of discontent in Collblanc-La Torrassa
Carme Rimbau, from the Defendamos el Castillo de Bellvís Association, relates the coexistence problems to the concentration of population in the district. In her opinion, that daily pressure explains part of the unease that has settled among residents.
"I was born here and I don't remember the problem being as serious as what we are having now, with fights, knives, guns..." - Carme Rimbau, Asociación Defendamos el Castillo de Bellvís
Rimbau positively values that the extraordinary council has been convened. He understands that District II has accumulated many problems and that neighborhood concern justifies that security and incivility be debated specifically.
The extraordinary meeting of the District II Council will be held on Thursday, May 21, at the Collblanc-La Torrassa Cultural Center, with the presentation of the follow-up of actions in coexistence and security and of the summer devices with deployment of civic agents, radar safe space and police reinforcement.