-What happened yesterday in the City Council with the opposition newspapers?
-No, surely Manolo Pérez Gopar, who is the Finance Councilor and is so concerned with sanitation because more and more debts are appearing, would want to sanitize the City Council by taking away one of the newspapers from the opposition. However, he did not cut the number for the government team. And well, I got angry with him. Anyway, the situation has already been fixed because it seems silly to me. I even came to think that since there is little news from the City Council, due to the little activity there is in the City Council, they will think that we do not need it.
-You met yesterday at the Lancelot hotel to talk about the PEPA.
-No, I didn't have any PEPA meeting.
-The PP was invited to a meeting on the PEPA that was promoted by the PNL.
-That has been a meeting held by the PNL to talk about the PEPA and that it seems that it had invited different social agents and also us, but I spoke with one of the representatives of the PNL, Mr. Pedro de Armas, and I told him that it did not seem formal to me that we should be invited to a meeting that another party has with groups. That we as councilors and party are willing to meet with the PNL and with the councilors of the PNL whenever they want to talk about the PEPA issue and other issues and probably in the coming days we will meet and analyze the issue. Anyway, last night the Monitoring Commission of the General Urban Planning Plan of Arrecife also met in the City Council, which has curiously lost interest for the PSOE because Mr. Miguel Ángel Leal did not go and Mrs. Irma Ferrer has not attended any of the meetings we have had.
-It seems that she is about to give birth or has already had the baby and is on leave.
-Ah, well. Well, she hasn't gone to any meeting nor has Mr. Miguel Ángel. And that, I who have read all the minutes for a long time have been asking for the withdrawal of the General Plan but now it seems that that is forgotten. And well, we had a meeting there. The Councilor for Urban Planning said that we had to hold a meeting to analyze the PEPA through the Board of Spokespersons and to see the allegations that are presented and so on. There we were also talking about how it was a shame that this PEPA document, which is so important, was initiated through a decree of the mayoress. We believe that a plenary session should have been held to inform all parties that we were going to start the processing of this document and allow everyone to speak, just as we have been criticizing, and the PP presented a motion to extend the deadline for allegations, because you know that August is practically non-working and September is also a month in which activity begins, so it is a month in which it does not work correctly.
-It is surprising that the PP has not said anything about what is happening in the South of the Island.
-The PP presented a series of questions yesterday. You know that yesterday there was a meeting of the Board of Spokespersons to discuss the issue of the Reform of the Statute, that plenary session that the Cabildo wants to hold on the Reform of the Statute, and neither the PP nor Alternativa Ciudadana attended because the meeting was scheduled for one hour and we were summoned much later and also a joint note was made between Alternativa and the PP asking about the plenary session on Health, that commitment that there was to take this issue to plenary in September. Afterwards, we asked several questions relating, for example, to the spills that have occurred in Yaiza and that do not seem to be the responsibility of Inalsa.
-Yes, the CEO of Inalsa has confirmed this, as has the Councilor for Urban Planning of Yaiza, although he himself told Acn Press that the southern Consistory had several copies of receipts that show that the company receives from subscribers residing in the South of the Island a fee of 0.34 euros per cubic meter, according to the ordinances. In other words, the public company has been charging the sanitation and wastewater treatment fee to users and residents of Playa Blanca for several years.
-I heard it, but what seemed more serious to me was what Mr. Mario said, comparing in the same way that there is a citizen who tries to deceive the institutions and is using water without paying for it, with the fact that an institution is charging a citizen unduly. I don't think it's the same. Of course, I was surprised and, well, it is intolerable that Mr. Mario puts at the same level of painful, in his own words, that a citizen deceives an institution than that an institution is deceiving a lot of citizens. I imagine that in the PP we will do something about it, because of course Mr. Mario will have to clarify the issue today and also if these citizens are being charged unduly, they will have to not charge them again and of course return all the money that has been charged to them unduly.
-Down to the last cent.
-And I also agree that Inalsa has no responsibility for the spills, but there is no other responsibility. That is, what does the Cabildo do when the waters are contaminated, it will have to take some action.
-No, it seems that they went quickly and took the sample to see what the degree of contamination was and according to what the Yaiza City Council says, it was sealed off.
-But at least a contamination file will be opened to try to solve the problem.
-But that has been said by the Yaiza City Council, the councilor has specified that a file has been opened and that those responsible will be sanctioned. That this is a municipal competence.
-Yes, but I think that from the Cabildo, which has competences in the Environment, an investigation file should have already been opened on this issue.
-How is it that Alternativa and the PP have agreed on an issue?
-Because look, the PP when things are reasonable and fair, we agree with whoever it is. Anyway, we often agree with Alternativa or any other party. We want that if things are fair and right, we support them. If they are our initiatives and others support us, great, but we are not ashamed to support initiatives of others. The PP has always tried to make a constructive opposition, critical but a loyal opposition without trying to be looking for tensions without any need and, well, I think that is the tone that we have always followed and the tone of what we have been doing. I know that for example in the last plenary session of the Arrecife City Council the Finance Councilor was a little annoyed with our interventions on the recognition of debt and the cleaning of parks and gardens, that now we find out that since '99 the canon had not been updated and 2.5 euros are owed, almost 400 million pesetas in such basic services as cleaning or garbage. That is, they are basic services for the municipality and that at any time the company with all its right could have stopped doing the service collection. This seems to me a carelessness and lack of foresight on the part of the Finance Councilor. That is annoying but these things have to be said, you cannot be playing with the basic services of a city. We were surprised because just as in the Cabildo we have been paying these two years debts that came from the previous legislature, in the Arrecife City Council we continue to pay debts from the previous legislature because this came from '98 or '99. The six million euro loan (1,000 million pesetas) was requested thinking that with that the debts of the previous legislature were paid, well, now it is not 1,000 million but 1,400 million.
-The 'evil tongues' comment that there is a flight of people from the PP to the PNL.
-Our governing body meets on Tuesdays, we have been planning the work, always ordinary things that are happening, I know that the local committees, some with more activity and others with less in these summer months, are working and look, I really do not answer rumors and comments.
-But they have reached you just like me.
-Yes, that's why. You already asked me once and I tell you no. We are working and planning our political activity.
