The counselor of the Island Council of Lanzarote, Óscar Noda, regrets that "the president of the council, Oswaldo Betancort, has stopped thinking about what is most convenient for the Island and refuses to approve any proposal that does not bear his name." According to the counselor and mayor of Yaiza, “this is what derives from his denial attitude in the Debate on the State of the Island that has been held during the last two days. Denying any proposal that this member of the opposition may present, thus, neither the management of water, nor agriculture, nor housing, nor transport seem to interest the president of the Cabildo, with the complacency of the PP, his government partner, kneeling to what Oswaldo Betancort dictates.”
“Betancort and the PP have refused, for example, to create a working commission to elaborate a strategic plan for agricultural irrigation in the short, medium and long term, so that the Island has once and for all a real opportunity for the development of agriculture. They have voted no, but then they falsely fill their mouths with supposed support for the primary sector of Lanzarote. Continuing with their litany of fables regarding the conejero countryside, they have not wanted a possible agreement with the Teguise City Council for the integral dynamization of the 'Agrotechnological Complex'. It is evident that they like the current situation, bordering on the abandonment that it has suffered for years. And that is because Teguise is in the middle, the main enclave of Oswaldo Betancort's interests since he took office, to the detriment of the rest of the Island.”
But “the spectacle of the denialist merchants of Lanzarote did not end there, as they have also refused to elaborate a mobility study to diagnose and implement the necessary measures to guarantee a sustainable, dynamic, effective and efficient public transport service that guarantees punctuality, greater frequency, greater connectivity and above all more agile and direct services. The population of Lanzarote, for sure, will not understand how the misgovernment of the Cabildo refuses to improve public transport taking into account the increase in vehicles and the imperative need for better transport on the Island. Let them ask the residents of El Golfo and other isolated nuclei.”
For Óscar Noda “the embarrassment of the day came when Betancort and his group refused to consider buying already built properties, new or to be rehabilitated, promoting official protection housing, acquiring or releasing housing for social use, as well as the acquisition of land for transfer to the Government of the Canary Islands for the construction of housing for social use or protection. Without a doubt, the citizens of Lanzarote will seriously wonder why the government group of the Cabildo refuses to work to end one of the biggest current problems on the island, the lack of housing”, notes Óscar Noda who has been able to verify “how the Debate on the State of the Island has become for Oswaldo Betancort a space to criticize the previous managers and to be able to see himself for several hours on Youtube, because thinking about Lanzarote and La Graciosa, they have thought rather little”.
Finally, Óscar Noda reminds the president “that the First Island Corporation is not to attack the town councils but to unite with them in order to solve problems. San Bartolomé and Yaiza, for example, are the object of contempt by Betancort, who believes that he is depreciating those who govern and does not realize that who he despises is the citizens of the municipalities.”
