The Collective of people with reduced mobility of Lanzarote (Colami) is studying suing the Arrecife City Council in court for the lack of accessibility to the municipal swimming pool. The spokesperson for Colami, Estrella Nicolás, assures that the legal advisors of the association understand that the City Council can be sued for clearly failing to comply with the regulations for the elimination of architectural barriers. And it is that although the new pool building has an entrance ramp, it is an unacceptable ramp for people with limited mobility. "If it's not Kafkaesque, it's a matter for the courts," says Estrella, who knows what it's like to have to move around in a wheelchair.
But in addition to suing the Corporation for the technical criteria of the access ramp, which could result in a fine of between 300 and 300 thousand euros, the association is considering suing the councilors who supported the opening of the building for malfeasance.
According to Colami, the group sent five letters to the Arrecife City Council, before, during and after the execution of the project of this building, "offering advice and collaboration to carry out the works, in order to guarantee accessibility, given that the association has the necessary training." However, far from accepting the offer, Estrella Nicolás assures, "they told us not to worry so much now as with the previous government team."
After the inauguration of the pool, the group visited the facilities together with a technician to check the accessibility of the building and its interior on site. From that moment on, concern was expressed about the entrance ramp. "It's a trap ramp. For anyone it is obvious that it is badly made," says the Colami spokesperson. And in fact, she assures that the City Council said that they were going to fix it, but they have not done anything so far.
In its desire to assert the rights that assist the group, Colami supports its request to repair this ramp with the criteria of Carlos Mahó, architect of the Royal Board on Disability, attached to the Ministry of Education, Social Policy and Sports. "He is one of the people who officially knows the most about the subject" and, according to Estrella, he was also visiting the accesses to the building and pointed out "that it was barbaric, despite what the City Council technician maintained that it was fine. It is evident that there is no attitude on the part of the City Council to change anything."
"OBLIGED" TO REPORT
According to the Colami spokesperson, "we are reaching a limit that forces us to report and that forces the association to spend money out of our own pockets on lawyers so that in the end the city council is forced to do what we are telling them to do."
All this, she assures, "is outrageous and at the very least, it is clear that there are technicians who are not prepared and politicians who are not either. If not, it is not explained how they can open new buildings that do not comply with the regulations. Something is wrong, either the technicians are not doing their job well or the councilor in turn is looking the other way."
And it is that according to Estrella, sometimes it seems "that they want to make us go through a gymkhana, that is third world, it is indecent. There is a very advanced regulation and it is not complied with and I do not know if it is not complied with due to ignorance, bad luck or lack of respect."
From Colami they regret that they receive daily complaints from people with reduced mobility who find access problems in many places, such as the island's own health centers, since some of them do not even have reserved parking spaces. Or the accesses to the Doctor José Molina Orosa hospital, "starting with the parking area inaccessible for many people due to the unevenness of the terrain and passing through pedestrian crossings that are only adapted on one side, as a citizen denounced to the association not many days ago.
Inaccessible activities
In addition, the Collective of people with reduced mobility has once again denounced that the Cabildo and other entities continue to support activities that take place in places that do not comply with the access regulations. On this occasion, they question "the use of the Atlántida cinema, by the Cabildo and the Caja de Canarias, to develop the pedagogical project Learn to see cinema. "From the collective we have already denounced in the Cabildo and in this place, that they do not comply with the regulations for the elimination of architectural barriers and therefore deprive students with reduced mobility from schools such as "Capellanía", "César Manrique" or the specific center of Tahiche.
Colami has made public its discomfort. "We do not understand why the activities are still being done there, it is inconceivable that spaces are used to develop cultural activities of values and that children with disabilities cannot access, it is not common sense", points out Estrella Nicolás, who demands more attention in these cases.
"At least, what we ask is that a technical aid be placed on the wall, it is an apparatus that does not cost so much money and even if it did, because we are talking about human rights and it cannot be addressed from indifference."
This same circumstance has been denounced on several occasions and yet it is repeated again. "It seems at least indecent to us that politicians and technicians make this decision to carry out activities in a center that does not comply with the law, taking into account that there is another cinema, the one in Deiland, which is very well adapted." Once again, concludes Colami, "fundamental rights are violated in activities that, while promoting values, paradoxically exclude a group of citizens."
