"If a mayor in the Peninsula has gone on a hunger strike, I will not be less". This is how the mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, has stated when asked on Radio Lanzarote about the works on the Tahíche road. "Not the same amount of hunger, but the same amount of insistence at the counselor's door", he later specified.
Betancort was referring to the mayor of Alburquerque, Ángel Vadillo, who has been on a hunger strike since June 11 in front of the Ministry of Industry, against the withdrawal of renewable energy subsidies.
The Arrecife to Tahíche road is pending furniture and landscaping and, after the cuts in the State budgets, it was already warned that this investment was in danger. However, according to Betancort, there is a "verbal" commitment from the Government of the Canary Islands to "unblock this item". "Not only for the Tahíche road, but also for the Las Cucharas promenade, which is so necessary," he pointed out. "I am going to fight for what belongs to the residents of Teguise and I am sure that I am going to get it, even if it takes two months instead of one," he added.
The mayor has stated that next week he will hold a meeting with the Minister of Public Works of the regional Executive, Domingo Berriel, to whom he will show his "rejection" for the delay in the completion of the works on this road. "The state of the embellishment cannot be left as it is, with the grass already invading the road," said Oswaldo Betancort, who has assured that he will fight "until the last minute, so that this road has its roundabouts well decorated, its planters and its furniture."
Likewise, Betancort has assured that he has conveyed to the general director of Roads the need to pave the streets adjacent to this work. "They have told me to present a valued report and that they will try, within the possibilities of the remainder, to complete these actions. All the deficiencies in sidewalks will also be presented," he said.
Even so, the mayor of Teguise has acknowledged having been reprimanded by his party for having raised his voice against the Government of the Canary Islands on this issue. "I did it with absolute respect. I go from institution to institution defending for my citizens what belongs to Teguise. And it is not only from Teguise, because all the people who live in Haría pass through there every day," said Betancort, who considers that "when a work has an item, a consolidated money, it is not acceptable that they take it to another place." "And what is not possible is that we are starting a ring road, of which I do not discuss the need for it, but that one is not finished to start another".
The works on Avenida de Costa Teguise, "vital"
The works on Avenida de Costa Teguise are in a similar situation. Works that, according to Betancort, were going to be put out to tender by the Government of the Canary Islands, but just "the cuts arrived with respect to the State budget." "But what is not possible is that this work suffers a cut when it is vital," said the mayor, who said that this work "is going to be done yes or yes". "Because what could be organized on Avenida de Costa Teguise, in addition to a sports event, could be an obstacle course," he added.
Betancort has assured in this regard that the Government of the Canary Islands has confirmed that the work will be put out to tender and that he will "scream" everything in his power to make it so. "Between Las Cucharas and El Jablillo we are talking about around one million euros," he pointed out