The counselor of the Mixed Group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Óscar Noda, criticizes that the insular president, Oswaldo Betancort (Coalición Canaria), has rejected his motion to follow up and set deadlines for the pending public housing actions in Playa Blanca.
Betancort has publicly defended that the Government combine the construction of the 136 homes in Montaña Roja with the purchase of already built or unfinished properties, considering that this formula allows for incorporating homes into the public stock more quickly and that it was the solution provided by the Yaiza City Council at the beginning of the term as a quick and safe measure to provide public housing to citizens in demand.
He also argued that the more than 34 million euros planned for Montaña Roja would allow the acquisition of more than 220 homes. Noda considers that this approach does not justify voting against his proposal: “We are not asking to stop buying housing or to give up building. We are asking for both to be done and for it to be stated when, as there are many families waiting."
He requested the tender for the 136 homes to be published within sixty days
The initiative requested the tender for the 136 homes to be published within a maximum of sixty days, a financing, contracting, and works calendar to be submitted, and the adjudication procedure for the 42 homes in Los Ajaches to be completed within thirty days, with the aim of handing over the keys within a maximum of three months, unless there is a duly motivated legal or technical impediment.
“Now it seems that there is a malicious temporizing to bring the date closer to the elections and scrape a handful of votes, while many people despair at the drama of the lack of decent housing.” Argues the mayor and councilor Óscar Noda. He also proposed a monthly meeting between the Government of the Canary Islands, the ICAVI, the Cabildo and the Yaiza City Council, in addition to periodically informing the Plenary.
Noda maintains that announcing the acquisition of another 76 homes and arguing that buying is faster does not answer the pending question about Montaña Roja: when will it be put out to tender and with what financing. Nor does it clarify when the families who opt for Los Ajaches will be able to move into their homes. The Government of the Canary Islands has communicated that it is preparing the award of the 42 homes and that it has allocated 5.5 million euros to the acquisition of another 76; for Noda, these steps must translate into verifiable dates and results.
The councilor especially reproaches Betancort for, as president of an institution that participated in the acquisition of the 42 houses at the request of the Yaiza City Council, rejecting that the Plenary monitor their delivery. “The Cabildo cannot limit itself to announcing operations and then opposing accountability for their execution. Housing is resolved when the works begin and families receive the keys,” points out Noda.
The motion also requested a monthly monitoring meeting and that the Presidency inform the Plenary about the responses and progress. Noda states that the refusal of the governing group leaves a basic requirement without institutional support: to know what is missing, who should resolve it, and within what timeframe.
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