Last week, we announced a
campaign that will also impose fines on buyers purchasing in illegal flea
markets or "Top Mantas" in our town. Just another step forward in the
war against illegal flea markets, carried out by the municipal government in
recent months. Since March we are engaged in a campaign to exert pressure on
illegal flea markets.
The proliferation of
illegal street sellers, also known as "Top Manta", is a problem for
many tourist towns of our country. From the city of Barcelona to other minor
destinations, the constant presence of illegal sellers - perfectly organized to
evade police pressure - has increased in recent years. In fact, this is not strictly
Catalan or Spanish issue, but common in many other European destinations.
The
current important crisis has favored its spread, so now it is an important
problem on the streets of cities and towns, provoked at the same time by the
massive influx of immigrants during the first decade of this century. In
Sitges, illegal flee market sellers or "Top Manta" are a problem for
two reasons: firstly, because they represent an unfair competition for
businesses that pay their taxes and keep their businesses open the entire year,
and another because their presence hurts the image of quality tourism that
distinguish and pursues our town.
The concentration of
"Top Manta" in the same area (formed by the lower section of
Parellades street, Marques de Mont-Roig and Primer de Maig) provokes the
logical anger of shopkeepers in this area. And they are right. I told them so
at the meetings that we held to address this situation.
The City Council is aware
of this situation and, therefore, from Easter the police are applying pressure
that has intensified during the present summer. The officers of the local
police, as well as Mossos d'Esquadra or the support of the National Police,
have intensified their persecution of illegal sellers. Thanks to such actions,
we have reduced their presence.
But we know that this is
insufficient and, accordingly, we wanted to make another step forward. For this
reason, we will begin to apply penalties to buyers of illegal products.
Citizens should be aware that when they buy "Top Manta" products,
they are contributing to this problem.
The sum of the persecution
of "Top Mantas", the reinforcement of police during the remainder of
the summer campaign and new fines to buyers, will contribute to reduce and
eventually eliminate this issue. It will not be easy. As I said before, it is
not strictly a local problem and we must be aware of the social and economic
environment that encourages it, but we work firmly to remove this problem.
