The councilor of the Mixed Group in the Island Council of Lanzarote, Óscar Noda, denounces the "indifference of Oswaldo Betancort regarding the public transport problems in Lanzarote. "The president is absolutely indifferent to the problems of the citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. Once again we have approached with proposals regarding one of the island's big problems, public transport, and Coalición Canaria and Partido Popular have turned their heads, have looked the other way, once again, leaving the conejeros aside," he states.
According to Noda, "we only asked that Betancort inform about the state of the drafting of the Specifications of the Insular Transport Service and explain the current state of the Lanzarote Public Transport service, but once again they are incapable of seeing beyond their navel or what they are ordered from the capital islands. Political blindness leads them to continuous refusal of everything the opposition proposes, even if it is important for the island. Quite the opposite, the president and his group, once again, have not responded, shirked responsibility and not clarified any of the questions we raised. Once again they hide from the problems of the people of Lanzarote and, meanwhile, the buses do not advance and do not reach everyone equally”.
“The detachment from the lives of the inhabitants of Lanzarote by Oswaldo Betancort is already so blatant that they don't even bother to hide it. They have not wanted to give explanations about the insufficiency of lines, about an outdated website, about the impossibility of making connections on the aforementioned website. They have not wanted to talk about the absence of bus shelters at numerous points, about the saturated lines and buses or about another issue that affects citizens, the saturation of the roads. They don't give explanations, nor do they bother. You have been in government for three years and we know nothing about the new tender document,” it continues.
Noda continues saying that “three years in which the roads continue without new projects to avoid saturations, three years in which the buses are full and leave people stranded, three years in which the circular buses, and that was a commitment of their government, do not work in my municipality, Yaiza, and three years in which the website is more than outdated and try to make a connection as simple as from Máguez to Órzola and it is impossible. They have not bothered to provide good public transport", Noda points out.
"An island like Lanzarote cannot afford to have a transport system like the one it has, with bad service and insufficient investment. Furthermore, our roads are starting to be unsustainably saturated and, given that, the only alternative we have is public transport. They have not made the economic financial effort to be able to provide a service befitting what the island deserves, it is their responsibility and, instead, after three years, they have been incapable of drafting a tender and, meanwhile, people are left stranded at the stops outdoors. The island no longer absorbs so much vehicle fleet, which is why a necessary commitment, whatever it costs us, to public transport becomes relevant, but no, Oswaldo Betancort and his councillors, look the other way, moving even further away from the citizens of Lanzarote,” he concludes.
