The municipal group of Lanzarote En Pie (LEP) in the Arrecife City Council has denounced the behavior of the advisor of the municipal consistory, Ignacio Herrero, during the celebration of a meeting with the residents of Titerroy held on Friday morning at the municipal facilities.
The events occurred during the meeting held in the Municipal Archive of Arrecife between the Councilor for Urban Planning, Eduardo Placeres, who was accompanied by Herrero, with the residents of Titerroy affected by the eviction of their homes after the death of a young man due to the collapse of a roof thirteen years ago.
In the aforementioned meeting, the Councilor for Urban Planning informed the residents that “the solution provided by the Government of the Canary Islands to resolve the situation of the affected residents cannot be implemented by the Arrecife City Council because the law does not allow it,” which caused disappointment and discomfort among the citizens who attended the meeting and reprimanded the councilor for the lack of solutions to a drama that has lasted for thirteen years.
According to the spokesperson for Lanzarote En Pie, Leticia Padilla, “the response of the residents, logically upset, provoked the intervention of the municipal advisor, Ignacio Herrero, who in the heat of the discussion maintained an out-of-place and very unpleasant attitude towards those present.”
For Padilla, “it is absolutely inadmissible for a Mayor's advisor to maintain this type of behavior towards the residents who were only asking for explanations about a situation that has lasted too long.” In addition, the councilor denounces that he also had a threatening attitude towards her at the end of the meeting, “he even raised his voice at me, approaching with aggressive gestures towards me.” In this sense, the LEP spokesperson will ask the mayor of Arrecife to dismiss the advisor for “the lack of respect shown towards the residents and the improper behavior of a public worker.” “Instead of calming the spirits and offering solutions, he ended up igniting the situation even more,” said the councilor.
Motion to the ordinary plenary session
Precisely, LEP has presented a motion to be debated in the next ordinary plenary session of the corporation, requesting that the necessary procedures be initiated to modify or create free competition subsidies to offer a solution to the residents evicted from the homes in Titerroy by the city council and those of the agreement between the Arrecife City Council and the Government of the Canary Islands to start the renovation works on the homes shortly.
Leticia Padilla recalled that, since 2009, families received a subsidy for having been evicted from their habitual homes until their homes were rehabilitated through the Housing Plans that the autonomous communities signed with the State.
In addition, two housing plans were signed by the City Council together with the Government of the Canary Islands and the State, but despite the fact that these homes have not been rehabilitated, since December 2018 the residents have not received any rental assistance due, among other causes, to the objections that have been raised from the consistory.
Finally, they point out that "thanks to the work of the councilors of Lanzarote En Pie together with the Association of Residents of Titerroy, the Government of the Canary Islands has been able to carry out an assessment of the evicted homes and propose an agreement with the Arrecife City Council to manage the renovation of these homes that have now been rejected by the municipal consistory, according to the announcement by the Councilor for Urban Planning, Eduardo Placeres."
