The Local Committee of Nueva Canarias (NC) in the municipality of Tías has transmitted its "concern" due to the "circulatory and urban chaos" in which the political formation considers that the nuclei of Puerto del Carmen and La Tiñosa are becoming.
From the party, they have criticized that "Puerto del Carmen is one of the most tourist areas of the island of Lanzarote, which was built on a natural space of great value and beauty and which absorbed a fishing village", while "La Tiñosa, has had to endure that its way of life has been transforming according to a tourism that today occupies the center of the economic action of the municipality".
Arminda Barreto, spokesperson for NC in the town of Tías, has added that "this tourist growth and the political eagerness to capture it without putting limits to development have led to a format of urban planning of occurrence".
Traffic, one of the main problems
In the opinion of the Canarian group, one of the difficulties derived from this "urbanism of occurrence" is mobility, which has become a problem for both workers and residents, "since the existence of a fluid traffic becomes impossible in the face of the labyrinth of streets and alleys that have been created without any planning and at the rate of construction focused on tourism".
"If one wishes to find, for example, the pharmacy on duty, it may take a while if one is not from the area", Barreto pointed out, who also assured that "it is not easy to park vehicles either".
In this sense, the Canarian representative has pointed out that "the situation of pedestrians is far from being inclusive and safe. This is evident in the poor condition of the sidewalks, palm trees and signs that interrupt the route of pedestrians, and that forces them to abandon the safety space for them".
Need for solutions "in the short, medium and long term"
Faced with these problems, which NC has described as "serious", the party has urged the City Council of Tías -governed by the PSOE, Lanzarote Avanza and Podemos Tías- to carry out an exercise of proactive governance and care.
Based on this, the formation has made several proposals, such as improving the public transport service of buses within the municipality and with other localities, both in the frequency of passage and in the information of the lines and the schedule at each stop, without forgetting the regulation of the price so that it is affordable for all sectors of the population and, especially, for residents.
"That will not only help to reduce the amount of road traffic in Puerto del Carmen, but will also favor the reduction of pollution produced by vehicles," said Barreto.
On the other hand, they have also contemplated the establishment of well-equipped public and free parking areas, from where users can move around on foot in an inclusive and safe manner, and the reservation of parking spaces for residents near their homes.
In this sense, they have also suggested optimizing the state and layout of the roads, pavements and pedestrian areas, in order to make it easier and more pleasant to move around Puerto del Carmen, prioritizing travel on foot or by non-motorized vehicles, compared to private cars.
With this action, as Barreto has remarked, "the existence of shared spaces where pedestrians and cars reach an understanding based on respect and the progressive reduction of motorized transport in favor of more sustainable ones is supported".
In addition to these ideas, which for the Canarians of Tías must be implemented "in the short and medium term", they have also pointed out that it is necessary to design an urban plan that, in the long term, "configures a more adequate layout for this town and that puts an end not only to the problems derived from mobility, but also to other urban issues that have not been adequately addressed for years".
"In this town green spaces are almost non-existent and public services, especially the local clinic, leave much to be desired", concluded Barreto.
