The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, has assured that in 2021 there will be a "large-scale" investment in the port of La Graciosa and has lashed out at the representatives of CC in the Teguise City Council, who this week denounced that Puertos Canarios had not allocated a single euro to the Caleta de Sebo dock in its work plan for next year.
"I am constantly surprised by the hypocrisy of the members of Coalición Canaria in Lanzarote, who accuse us of not planning anything just after meeting in La Graciosa with the technicians of Puertos Canarios who were taking measurements and evaluations in the current facilities of Caleta de Sebo in order to prepare a preliminary project," said the Minister after the statement sent by the mayor and regional parliamentarian, Oswaldo Betancort, and the councilor delegate of La Graciosa, Alicia Páez.
“We have the resources in the Ministry and we are determined to act in Caleta de Sebo, so the statements of the members of Coalición Canaria are made from ignorance or, what is worse, from bad faith,” added Franquis. In this regard, he recalled that two months ago he appeared at the request of the Nationalist Group in Parliament to talk about the port of Caleta de Sebo and explained to the deputies of Coalición Canaria that in 2020 nearly 37,000 euros have been invested in the repair of several mooring fingers and to improve the commercial pontoon. He also announced in that same appearance that a project was being drafted to repair the reception pontoon, with a planned investment in 2021 of more than 100,000 euros.
As a result of this appearance, Minister Franquis explains that he asked the technicians of Puertos Canarios to draft a "much more ambitious" preliminary project, which is why measurements are being taken on the ground at this time. "This is a major intervention that would be carried out in several phases and for which there are resources in the Ministry", he said, adding that this intervention will serve "to alleviate the lack of investment in modernization and revitalization actions that this port has suffered in the last decade", precisely under the government of Coalición Canaria.
In this way, the technicians of the Ministry plan to remodel part of the docks, the pontoons and a broad intervention also in the square that connects the port with the population and that functions "as an authentic gateway to the thousands of visitors that the island of La Graciosa usually receives each year, a square that currently does not meet the aesthetic and comfort conditions required by both residents and tourists who disembark there”.
In this regard, Franquis has announced that "in a few weeks" he will summon the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, as well as the local authorities and the associations of fishermen and residents of the island of La Graciosa "to coordinate and agree on a comprehensive intervention that the technicians of the public entity Puertos Canarios are already planning to start this year in order to remodel the port of Caleta de Sebo”.
The regional minister insisted that there are sufficient resources in the Ministry to face a large-scale action in La Graciosa in 2021, since investments in the improvements of the autonomous ports are made both through the Puertos Canarios entity and from the Vice-Ministry of Infrastructure itself, as is currently the case with the expansion of the port of Playa Blanca, a work that has a budget of 39 million euros.
In addition, he recalled that Puertos Canarios is also currently intervening in an emergency work in the port of Órzola, "an investment of 400,000 euros to reinforce and guarantee the safety of an essential dock, since it is the place from which commercial boats leave for La Graciosa”.
