The spokesperson for the Renovating Movement of Tinajo (MRT), Antonio Morales, has demanded that the mayor, Jesús Machín, "tell the truth once and for all about the General Plan of the municipality that, after more than 15 years, has still not been adapted to current regulations such as the Canary Islands Land Law."
“It has not been updated for more than a decade and is not adapted to the new laws in force,” explains the MRT councilor. “It is not understood that in 15 years the mayor has not taken seriously one of the most important documents that a municipality has, the planning, which orders the territory and which allows the generation of economy and employment; that the neighbors can build their own houses and that the businessmen can install their companies in the municipality,” denounces Morales, who regrets that “today there are neither houses nor premises available due to the mayor's whim, who does not want to approve the General Plan.”
“The mayor and his municipal government continue to turn their backs on the possibilities of generating wealth and employment in the municipality. What they are achieving is that people have to make a living in other municipalities by deciding, we do not know for what reasons, not to carry out the General Plan, when it is the first thing that any government should develop since it is the most important tool, together with the local budgets, that a town hall has,” says Antonio Morales.
To these problems generated by the lack of adaptation of the General Plan “are added inconsistencies that affect neighbors who today are paying taxes for land that in theory is developable but who, however, are not allowed to build.”
Given the seriousness of these events, the MRT has been insisting to the mayor since 2019 on the need to adapt the planning to accommodate the needs of the municipality. “There are many neighbors who are still waiting for the initial errors to be corrected, but the mayor does not even answer their allegations and simply lies to the opposition,” says the MRT spokesperson, concerned with the lack of legal certainty and the harmful effects that the absence of planning in force is causing in the municipality.
“Zero transparency”
The MRT spokesperson specifies that after requesting several appearances before the municipal Plenary, “it was in April 2021 when the mayor ended up asking us to delegate to him, through an order, the signing of the agreement with Gesplán” -a public entity of the Government of the Canary Islands that advises and helps the town halls with these planning instruments-. For this reason, Morales alleges that “we never understood that in 2018 the mayor and the municipal government hired a technician from outside the Canary Islands to supposedly adapt that General Plan to these new times.”
In this sense, the MRT questions the lack of transparency of the current government group. “As of today, we know nothing about the work that technician did and, after that hiring, the mayor spent several years without accepting that the work be coordinated with Gesplán until 2021,” says Morales.
After almost two years of said plenary agreement for the signing with Gesplán, “we have no news, we know nothing, not even if that agreement was signed or if Tinajo has already joined or not the environmental evaluation body of the Government of the Canary Islands; we have no information whatsoever,” he laments.
“Unfulfilled promises”
In his opinion, “something uncertain and very serious that the mayor committed to was that he was going to eliminate the action units, a figure that cannot be eliminated and that all general plans contemplate.” “He also promised that he would solve all the pending problems that this General Plan is causing to the affected neighbors, something that he has not fulfilled either since the document has not been approved,” denounces Antonio Morales.
The MRT spokesperson denounces that “the pride of any public official should be that their own neighbors stay in the municipality.” “When houses are built, the economy is generated. In addition, there are companies that want to invest in Tinajo but cannot do so due to this lack of planning. Today there are neither free houses nor premises to set up businesses here,” he expresses.
With the aim of continuing to develop a constructive opposition, Antonio Morales once again demands that the mayor of Tinajo speed up the procedures to carry out an “outdated” General Plan” since “we continue to lose investment opportunities and improvements for Tinajo.” For this reason, he once again extends his hand to the government group and requests “that the MRT and the rest of the opposition can know at what point the process of adapting this important document is.”
