The Madrid City Council has failed to adhere to its noise regulations on as many as 66 occasions during San Isidro celebrations in the past four years. It did this through the public company of the Culture and Tourism District, Madrid Destino, the district that organizes large municipal events. The total fines, processed by the City Council’s Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility District, amount to €429,900. Some of them, the most dangerous, are because they far exceed the permissible decibel limit in areas declared to have special sound protection, such as the Plaza Mayor or the Plaza de Gabriel Miro. To date, the City Council has not responded to EL PAÍS’s questions on this issue.
The imposition of fines by the City Council in itself represents a paradox because the funds with which the amount of the penalties will be paid come from the budget item collected for the public company Madrid Destino and are returned to the public treasury of the municipality. However, for socialists, the importance of this issue goes beyond just an economic problem. “The city council must be perfect,” criticizes PSOE council member Jorge Donaire. “They should demand the same things from private developers, because it seems the idea of regulation is only for some,” he adds.
Some city council-approved events received a special permit to exceed the specified decibel limit, which is typically done at patron saint celebrations or at certain events. Although the noise limit in normal circumstances is 45 decibels and the city council authorized the holding of parties in which it was allowed to reach 75 decibels, some measurements on the facades of buildings revealed that it exceeded 100 decibels. The noise measurement is not linear, it is exponential. Every three decibels doubles the total volume. Therefore, the fact that 100 decibels was reached when the limit was 75 means that the sound was 323 times louder than permitted.
There are at least 66 reports of non-compliance with municipal noise regulations by the city council itself and all of them are linked to events celebrated during the San Isidro festivities. Of them, nine are from 2022, 27 are from 2023, 18 are from 2024, and 12 are from this year. Not all acts end in penalties because the city council only imposes fines for the event held daily with the highest noise level.
The way Madrid Destino responded to penalties has changed. In the first two years, 2022 and 2023, it appealed them, but since 2024 it accepts them and benefits from “recognition of liability and voluntary payment” to benefit from a 40% reduction in the amount to be paid. However, the city council has spent €429,900 on itself over the past four years.
Municipal regulations include measures against violations that exceed the noise limit beyond the payment of fines. These include, for example, closing the event, removing the “emitting lights” (speakers), or even suspending the license to hold events of this type for a period of up to five years. In cases where the city council itself failed to comply with its regulations, only financial penalties were imposed. As stated, those considered “serious” range from 12,000 to 300,000 euros. In this case, although there are some cases that are listed as “very serious”, the maximum fine is around 24,000 euros.
They point out from the Socialist Municipal Group that, moreover, in October this year the Madrid City Council presented the so-called Action Plan on Noise Pollution, which is considered “one of the main causes of complaints in the field of noise” and “large events” held in the city. The Socialist Workers’ Party criticizes that, despite this, almost no measures have been proposed to address this situation. Some of those who appear aim to maintain “constant communication with event promoters”, to link “their celebrations with compliance with a series of corrective measures”, such as soundproof screens, or establishing “operating schedules compatible with residents’ rest periods”.
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