The Lanzarote Acción Civil Platform has echoed the complaints expressed by the residents of the center of Arrecife. Specifically, it shows its "annoyance and discomfort at the constant annoyances caused by the macro-parties organized by the Arrecife City Council."
According to the residents, the area of El Charco and Plaza de Las Palmas especially "have become a source of problems, suffering daily the humiliation of seeing their streets and surroundings turned into dumps of urine, excrement and vomit."
"The residents of this area can't take it anymore and have conveyed this to the Lanzarote Acción Civil Platform," they say. “We feel humiliated to see how our houses and our streets, which have always been places of peaceful coexistence, are transformed into the epicenter of undignified behavior,” they say.
For months, “the parties are held without any control and, the next day, we have to respond with the waste left by the attendees, who seem to have no respect for the place or for the people who live here," commented one of those affected, in the downtown area.
"Waste and destruction of the environment, in a protected space, noise pollution plus that produced by two engines used to power all those events, approximately 200 hours on make the situation unsustainable for the residents," they say.
They denounce "the lack of effective measures to prevent nighttime festivities from degenerating into unsanitary situations." They also want to emphasize that "the municipal authorities have not taken into account their previous complaints or bothered to offer solutions, such as immediate street cleaning or the provision of more public restrooms for those attending these celebrations."
"We want to enjoy Arrecife, but what we are experiencing is a nightmare. It is unacceptable that the Arrecife City Council continues to promote events that, far from benefiting the city, force us to live with the anguish of finding our streets turned into a landfill every weekend," comments another resident of the area," they criticize.
The residents assure that the situation "has worsened in the last year, with a greater frequency of massive parties that extend until the early hours of the morning, without the local authorities taking action. Some even point out that the lack of an adequate response is affecting both the quality of life of the residents and the safety in the area."
Faced with this situation, the residents have requested an urgent meeting with the City Council to seek immediate solutions and prevent this type of event from continuing to be held in residential areas without taking into account the well-being of the inhabitants. They demand "greater regulation of the festivities and a strengthening of cleaning and security measures, in order to guarantee that coexistence between residents and cultural or leisure activities can be carried out in a respectful manner."
