Nueva Canarias (NC) asks the Cabildo and the Teguise City Council that "the works to install the North Pipeline as it passes through the town of Tahiche" be carried out "outside school hours and even during school vacation weeks." For this reason, the party demands "more sensitivity with the people and groups affected."
Dr. Fernando Jiménez, NC candidate for Mayor of Teguise, expresses his solidarity with all those affected and denounces that these channeling works, which are expected to last between 30 and 45 days, "attack the social welfare of the six children with special educational needs (SEN) who use the Enclave Classroom and against that of children with hearing impairments from the Tahíche school.” “It would be good for the media to come and record the reality of an enclave classroom, as this type of space must meet different requirements, so it is not so easy to find another location so easily,” argues the Canarian candidate.
In this sense, despite the fact that Nueva Canarias claims to be "aware of the need to improve the drinking water distribution network" and supports "new infrastructure for agricultural supply,” Jiménez considers it “regrettable that the political confrontation to which the Socialist Party and the Canarian Coalition have accustomed us, and which both parties have transferred to relations between the Cabildo and the Teguise City Council, ends up affecting our own neighbors in this way.”
PSOE and CC, confronted and “the house unswept”
The Canarian candidate points out that "on January 20 it was made public that Teguise had managed to paralyze the works on the northern line pipeline in Tahíche until at least a traffic plan was drawn up." At that time, "the Local Police delivered the notification to the project manager due to the lack of signage and information to the affected residents. Since then, the City Council has been assuring that the Cabildo's project was not agreed upon with the residents. However, and inexplicably, the works were wanted to be resumed immediately,” laments Fernando Jiménez, who points directly to municipal and island responsibilities. “We do not understand why Olivia Duque –head of the Technical Office and CC candidate for Mayor of Teguise– and Marcos Bergaz –spokesperson and PSOE candidate in Teguise and vice president of the Cabildo– do not agree on such a basic issue,” explains the NC candidate, who demands that both leaders “show some empathy with those affected, that they cease these confrontations” and “that PSOE and CC stop trying to obtain electoral gain at the expense of the suffering of schoolchildren, parents, residents, athletes and merchants of Tahíche.”
In fact, Jiménez recalls that “both institutions have ignored the option of the Cabildo acquiring certain land, for 400,000 euros to be paid in 4 or 5 years, through which said channels could be distributed. They have chosen the worst option and it is a shame that they have turned a deaf ear to the owner of those lands,” he explains. “Of course, the people of Tahíche do not deserve the circus of the last neighborhood meeting either, in which both Olivia Duque and Marcos Bergaz blamed each other for this mess between both institutions,” warns Dr. Fernando Jiménez.
Alternatives with less impact
As entities such as the Santiago Mayor Association have been denouncing, which last Wednesday managed to bring together a hundred people to ask the Cabildo to postpone these works, from the ranks of Nueva Canarias they maintain that said works represent an affront as they pass through important infrastructures such as the CEIP César Manrique, the University Schools of Tourism and Nursing, the Municipal Pavilion or the soccer field, spaces that support a large influx of students, athletes, and the general public daily, “in addition to the irreparable damage that it can cause to the oldest homes, as well as to businesses in the area.” Therefore, “Nueva Canarias supports the campaign to collect signatures initiated by the Association itself, which is receiving considerable social support” and requests a change in the schedule for the execution of the works.
