"We want to start up this place that, until a few years ago, was closed, and for that we are doing all the necessary procedures. Right now it is being managed directly by the City Council until it is put out to public tender, presumably next week," said Juan Antonio de la Hoz in statements made to Radio Lanzarote. "The PSOE has messed up because they know that this bar was operating long before I was a councilor, because that is a municipal dependency," he said. And he added that "in principle, these dependencies do not need an opening license, and even less when they are, as in this case, a small bar-café."
The councilor recalled that the opening license is granted by the City Council and "it is not going to grant itself a license, but an report is needed, which is what we have already requested from the opening department, to verify that it is in order." He assured that they are putting everything in order "in matters of security, fire extinguishers and other basic rules". He complained that "they also know that, in plenary agreement, the Casa Ajei has been disaffected and its management has been transferred to the Culture Board, which I chair."
He also reported that the Culture, Festivities, Historical Heritage, Environment and Citizen Protection departments have been moved to the Casa Ajei. "The offices and staff are already working there." In the Casa Ajey, space has been given to a Cabildo employment workshop, tourist information officers, and another employment workshop of the Canary Islands Government, intercultural mediators. "The idea is that people who are there from 8:00 in the morning have a place to have a coffee," he said.
"Now some are scratched because they tried to govern in San Bartolomé and have not been able to, not because of our fault, but because of their apathy and their neglect, and now they are looking for scapegoats and culprits, and it seems that this time it has touched me," he concluded.
Reply from the Socialist Party
The socialist Andrés Stinga wanted to make use of his right of reply on this same station and assured that the public complaint made by the Socialist Party in San Bartolomé is not motivated by personal disagreements. "What we want is for things to be done well. If there is a municipal property bar we are talking about something public and there are two ways to exploit it: direct exploitation, which is not the case, or public tender, which is not either," he said. "If it were a direct exploitation by personnel of the consistory, I wonder what a man is doing working there who has no connection with the City Council," he pointed out.
He also added that the technicians of the City Council have no record of it. "None of us are aware that the councilor or the Heritage Council has prepared a contest. The logical thing would be to legalize the situation, to get all the necessary permits and offer the contest to give the opportunity to all the residents of San Bartolomé to apply for it," he said.
He assured that the complaint that his group has made public has served for the councilor to launch the public tender and correct his mistake. "We are aware that there is a group of important people who need the bar, and we are aware that the bar has to be opened, but we ask that things be done well. What Juan Antonio de la Hoz cannot do is use the City Council and his department as if it were a private estate. The citizens of San Bartolomé have voted for him to administer the City Council, not to sell it," he said.
