Four minors fined 3,000 euros over a pool in Burgos, Spain

Four minors, 3,000 euros and a pool on the brink of closure

The City Council of Burgos has decided to put a price on a problem that kept repeating itself: four minors with no nationality, race or ethnicity listed —the wording used in the complaint— face a 3,000-euro fine for using a municipal pool. According to published reports, the fine comes after six incidents at the same facility. It is not a symbolic amount: it is the first time a fine of this size has been imposed on users with no means of payment.

The problem of collecting it

The reactions have been as predictable as they are useless. Some demand a hard line and community service, forgetting that juvenile justice does not work that way. Others simply point out the obvious: a 3,000-euro fine for insolvent minors is a dead letter. The council's pragmatism clashes with the demographic reality of those who use the pool.

But there is something both sides overlook. The pool is not at risk because of a few uncivil swimmers, but because the administration has found no way to deter them without closing the service. Every incident brings closure closer, and every closure of a public facility punishes the whole neighborhood.

The 3,000-euro fine will probably never be collected. And meanwhile, the underlying problem remains: how to keep a public service running when a minority decides the rules do not apply to them. No one has solved that equation yet.