The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, convened the taxi sector to a meeting that took place this afternoon in the plenary hall of the City Council where he presented to the attendees the conclusions of the economic study commissioned by the City Council to allow the update of the rates of these public service vehicles, which until now are among the lowest in Spain.
The meeting was also attended by the Councilor for Transportation and Mobility, Mario González Altube, whose department commissioned an economic study at the end of last summer to quantify the high costs that taxi owners have registered due to the increase in the cost of living registered in recent years. The rise in fuel prices and the increase in the price of products and services that have triggered the increase in the CPI to figures not seen in the last two decades in Spain is notorious.
In this meeting, the fourth held by the mayor and the councilor with the taxi sector during these first 15 months of mandate, the mayor confirmed to the taxi drivers present at the meeting that the call for the plenary session next Friday, November 29, will include among the items on the agenda, the update of taxi fares in Arrecife, with the conclusions provided by this specific study.
Yonathan de León detailed that "the Municipal Corporation will know about this issue through the prior Information Commission to be held by the Transportation and Mobility Area, which will meet this Friday, November 22. In it, Mario González Altube will share with the political groups present in this Corporation the details of this update".
Meeting to improve the taxi service in Arrecife
Yonathan de León and Mario González Altube recalled today at the meeting that they had already confirmed to the taxi sector, in a previous meeting held last September, that the Arrecife City Council would carry out a study for the analysis of the rates of auto taxis in the capital of Lanzarote, given the high costs that have been registered in recent years and that have affected transport systems in Spain. The capital of Lanzarote currently has one of the lowest rates among the more than 8,000 municipalities in Spain.
In previous meetings with the taxi sector group, the license holders had stated that "with the current rates, it is difficult for vehicles to work many days of the week as they do not cover their costs associated with these services." In response to this request from taxi professionals, the Arrecife City Council commissioned a study that has determined the update of the rates.
The taxi drivers have committed to the mayor that they will collaborate with the City Council to improve the service in the city, with shifts and more presence of vehicles at the stops that allow citizens more mobility options, both day, afternoon or night, and more singularly on days with the presence of cruise ships in the city.
After the plenary agreement of Arrecife, on November 29, the final approval will correspond to the Territorial Price Commission in the province of Las Palmas, the body to which the Department led by González Altube will send the conclusions of the technical study that supports this update.
Yonathan de León concluded today's meeting, in which a representation of the San Marcial de Arrecife Cooperative was present, that "the City Council will continue to work jointly with this sector to solve the problems that affect taxi users, which are known by the citizens of Lanzarote".
Mario González Altube has advanced that "his department is being reinforced with more technicians to speed up the procedures in Mobility and Transport in a city like Arrecife that is having an important boom and development".
The City Council will apply in 2025 a system that guarantees the presence of taxis at the stops in the neighborhoods and the center of Arrecife, coinciding with the days of cruise ship stopovers, to guarantee the citizen mobility of local residents in the public taxi service in the capital of Lanzarote. The taxi drivers have shown, again at the meeting, their support for this measure.
Yonathan de León, and Mario González Altube, will continue to hold future meetings with the taxi sector, as an extension of the several held in this first year of mandate, tending to solve the problems of the public taxi service in Arrecife, and providing solutions that allow an improvement of the public taxi service in Arrecife.
