Lanzarote is going to close the parking lots of Caldera Blanca and Volcán del Cuervo for two weeks, coinciding with Easter Week. This was announced this Tuesday by the second vice president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Samuel Martín, during an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero. This temporary measure comes a year after the island government's announcement to control the space.
The island councilor of the Biosphere Reserve, Environment, Geopark and Climate Change has highlighted that this initiative is part of a pilot test through which they will install two bus lines from Mancha Blanca to the natural spaces of Caldera Blanca and Volcán del Cuervo. These buses will leave every 30 minutes, each covering one of the routes.
Martín explained on the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote that the Cabildo and the City Council of Tinajo are working on a project to bring electric buses to Mancha Blanca and "to be able to take a tour of the Natural Park of the Volcanoes." Thus, he indicated that they are "waiting for this project, but that unfortunately" the subsidy and the tender "has been delayed more than we would like in time." Therefore, both institutions have decided to take steps forward through this pilot test.
The Environment Councilor has indicated that with this temporary test, which will last 15 days from Friday, April 11, both spaces will be provided with environmental informants and maintenance personnel also in charge of cleaning the trails. For this, the Cabildo has contracted the rental of two buses with drivers during those 15 days, where this test will be free.
"It is true that we often have problems with tourist saturation," the councilor acknowledged during his speech. In this sense, he highlighted that, "we ourselves are the ones who also have to believe in and take care of the landscape." Therefore, with the tickets to be able to use the buses, the Cabildo will distribute relevant information about caring for the environment.
In addition, when the service is definitively tendered, the forecast is to eliminate the current parking areas at the beginning of the trails and condition visits to the prior reservation of a place through an application that the Cabildo of Lanzarote will launch in collaboration with the City Council of Tinajo, which has already started the process of acquiring the electric buses that will operate these lines.
"Last year we deployed a regular service of informants in sensitive spaces, from north to south of the island, and now we face the challenge of executing this pilot test during a period of high influx of visitors such as Easter Week," Martín detailed.
In this sense, Samuel Martín has indicated that "it is not ruled out" that, after this pilot test, "we will issue a much larger procedure again" before the tender that is pending in the Government of the Canary Islands for the definitive project is resolved.
Likewise, he wanted to send a message of reassurance to the residents, assuring that, of the future fee that will tax the bus route to these spaces, they will try to exclude the residents or that they have to face a minimum payment. Likewise, the Cabildo of Lanzarote has pointed out in a subsequent note that "neither now -as has been referred to- nor in the future will the people of Lanzarote be charged for this service".
