The City Council, with the support of the Serralada de Marina i Seprona Park Consortium, activates an operation
The aim is to prevent the spread of spaces that are used as sub-housing and illegal business areas
The Town Council of Montcada i Reixac (Vallès Occidental), with the support of the Serralada de Marina Park Consortium and the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) have activated this Monday an operation to dismantle new illegal buildings that have arisen in the pollancreda of Sant Pere de Reixac, riverside forest next to the settlement of barracks in Besòs. It is a space with a total of 4 hectares of land where debris and buildings have recently appeared. According to municipal sources, there are about twenty plots where no one lives, although a dozen animals, including dogs and chickens, have been counted. Action has been taken to prevent it from being used for various purposes, from residence to activities related to the illegal economy. “We are starting the process to eliminate the illegal settlements, which were spreading more and more; in the Pollancreda area a year ago there was almost nothing and in a few months practically the whole area has been occupied”, he affirmed from the area the mayor, Bartolo Egea. According to the councilor of the Local Police, David Zambrana, “rigorous control is being carried out so that the settlements do not grow”. In this line, the president of the Territorial Area of the council, Andreu Iruela, has pointed out that “this is the first of other actions to come, we will not stop until the area is clean and the Generalitat needs to assume its powers in order to eliminate the slums in Besòs and draw up the road map, we can’t wait any longer.”
The action, which began this Monday morning, could last several days
It is expected that the action, which began this Monday in the early hours of the morning, will last the whole day or even several days. The La Serralada Forest Defense group, the local Montcada police and the Mossos d’Esquadra are participating in the operation. The council has reached an agreement with the company Tersa and everything that is removed from the area will be taken to the Ferreria estate – the site was the incinerator, which closed in 2004 – where the materials will be sorted.
🔴 The City Council, with the support of the Consorci de la Serralada de Marina, today begins an action to dismantle the illegal buildings in the pollancreda del Besòs, next to the barracks area. Where the intervention takes place, by @adf_301, no one lives there. #Montcada pic.twitter.com/75Wz3TaSgf
Two people died in this area in January 2022, poisoned by smoke from a brazier
In November 2023, another fire also occurred, this time without injuries or fatalities, in the area of orchards and illegal buildings. The council again asked the Generalitat to find a solution to the problem of shantytowns in the Besòs riverbed. The City Council is awaiting the development of a management plan to determine what actions need to be carried out in the area, a plan in which different administrations are involved. The Besòs Consortium is in charge of drawing up this project, at the behest of the Technical Commission for the management of slums in the Besòs riverbed, made up of the council and the Generalitat.