The spokesman for Alternativa Ciudadana (AC-25M) in the Arrecife City Council, Andrés Barreto, believes that they are still in time to eliminate the "speculative" part of the General Plan of the capital and put an end to the many doubts raised by the initial approval of the document. Hence, they consider the work that has been done so far and that is resumed today to be fundamental.
Barreto explained during his intervention in the Buenos Días program of Radio Lanzarote that his political formation is verifying that the complaints that were made in their day about the General Plan of Arrecife were true, "that it has even had the endorsement of other parties and of all the groups that have passed through the Commission", Monitoring Commission of the Plan that begins to function as of today as a response to a request from this party. "We continue to think that a General Plan of Arrecife that is going to contemplate the near future of the city cannot focus exclusively on solving the building problems of the municipality", he commented, stating that what has been done is more typical of a "speculative plan" than of a common document for the citizens. For him, "all they have done so far is to put at the service of friends the appropriate land so that the milestones can be made".
In Alternativa they estimate that the debate on these aspects "is already burned", more than anything because the citizens consider that this Plan "is useless". For this reason, they propose that the "enormous shortcomings" that it still drags be resolved in order to solve the problems of the citizens. "The Plan has tremendous deficiencies in social housing, in education, in health, in the channeling of rainwater and wastewater and in public transport and road traffic", he indicated in his analysis of the document that will be debated again today. In addition, he emphasized the "marginalization" that in his opinion occurs between the neighborhoods and the city, which leads them to demand that "no more time be wasted with a speculative General Plan".
Andrés Barreto also said that they have not ceased in their efforts to have the document withdrawn and to replace everything that was done wrong in its day, "everything that was done wrong consciously". "The facts are demonstrating that we were right, because in these last three years licenses have not stopped being given, with the aggravating factor that now licenses are being given to those who have taken advantage of the publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands of the revision, and those are consolidated rights. When things are agreed upon and done consciously, it is difficult to go back and recognize what has been done wrong", he stressed.
Once again he brought to light the example of Los Diseminados de Argana, a nucleus consolidated perhaps by the mistakes of the past but that has to find a recognition to avoid that they continue living in the situation of interinity in which they live currently. "As other nuclei have already been consolidated, that one can be legalized, but always with the conditioning of that area, because let's not forget that those neighbors are paying their taxes", he recalled.
Doubts about the change of department
Barreto also warned that they are not going to be condescending in their group and are going to continue battling in all the issues that require battle, especially now that there has been a change that they believe is "important". In his opinion, it is not normal that when the mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, made exclusive use of the Department of Urban Planning, when she even provoked the first pact crisis with Coalición Canaria (CC) for not wanting Pedro de Armas to carry that area, it is now left in the hands of the Canarian Socialist Party (PSC) through the councilor Nuria Cabrera, "someone who has been insisting in the opposition that what had been done was useless". "We do not understand how all that responsibility has been ceded without anything having happened, without it even being commented on in the plenary session", he said, stating that "if that means that the government group of Arrecife is trying to wash the face of the Plan and the modification Alternativa will do everything possible to get the citizens out on the street to request that a document that is contrary to the general interests be withdrawn". "We are not going to enter into the patching discussion", he commented.
