The Socialist Party (PSOE) in Teguise announced at a press conference this Monday that it will bring to the next plenary session an initiative with a set of measures aimed at reducing the delay in processing municipal licenses and authorizations affecting citizens and businesses.
A situation that has generated the umpteenth internal crisis within the local government, still formed by Coalición Canaria (CC), Partido Popular (PP) and the former Vox councilor.
During his appearance before the media, the municipal spokesperson, Marcos Bergaz, accompanied by several socialist councilors, stressed the urgency of acting in the face of a situation that, far from improving, remains entrenched. "As the majority party, we insist once again on the need to provide a more agile response to the requests of the citizenry," he pointed out.
Bergaz added that "the problem is aggravated by the lack of coordination within the governing group": "While citizens wait, we are witnessing a new episode of internal crisis between partners who are throwing accusations at each other about whether the cause is a lack of staff, poor organization of human resources, or if the responsibility lies with CC, the PP, or both."
In this context, the socialist spokesperson insists on the need to act with urgency: “Regardless of whether we are facing a traffic jam or a collapse, and beyond the exchange of reproaches between the members of the municipal government —CC, PP, and the former Vox councilor—, it is urgent to offer solutions”.
In that regard, Bergaz claims that the governing group "abandons the ego fight, stops putting spokes in the wheels, and focuses on solving a problem that has been dragging on for years, preventing residents and business owners from continuing to pay the consequences of their internal crisis".
The delay in the granting of urban planning licenses in Teguise has consolidated itself as a structural problem that has affected residents and businesses for years. “It is necessary to change the model that has brought us here,” the socialists demanded. The complaints are constant regarding delays that far exceed legal and reasonable deadlines, with a direct impact on personal projects, economic activity, and access to housing.
The socialists recall that the local government itself has acknowledged the magnitude of the problem. In a recent file for management commission to GESPLAN, still blocked despite the urgency, an important delay accumulated over years was already admitted. According to that data, the volume of unresolved files is around 4,787 —including major works licenses, prior communications of first occupancy, and urban planning disciplinary files—.
However, from the government group itself it has been publicly recognized that the real figure exceeds 5,000 files, many of them carried over from previous years and of relatively simple processing.
To this accumulation is added the "lack of a clear and coordinated response". In recent weeks, municipal officials have even described the situation as a "significant bottleneck" and even a "brutal bottleneck of documentation", attributing it both to the high number of applications and to limitations in management capacity.
For the Socialist Group, this scenario highlights the need to act with urgency. “Not only the response to citizens is at stake, but also the image of the Technical Office and the professionals who make it up,” they emphasize. Therefore, the initiative includes concrete measures aimed at speeding up processing and reducing the volume of accumulated files.
Among them, it is proposed to reinforce the human resources of the Municipal Technical Office through the formulas allowed by the regulations, attending to the needs detected by its own professionals. Likewise, it is proposed to create a working group with the professional associations —Architecture, Technical Architecture, and Law, among others— to improve coordination, procedures, and technical criteria in the processing of files.
The PSOE also proposes to update municipal ordinances and urban planning related to the granting of enabling titles. Added to this is the development of a practical guide to facilitate the correct submission of applications and reduce errors and requests for correction.
Another package of measures aims to promote a procedure for rapid or urgent processing of priority or of general interest files, such as those relating to the promotion of housing for residential use, according to the current context of housing emergency, as well as to constitute a commission with representation from all political forces for the analysis, monitoring, and evaluation of the measures.
“Behind each file there are neighbors, business projects and investments, which wait too long for a response from the City Council,” conclude from the Socialist Group, which insists on its outstretched hand to promote solutions with concrete and measurable measures.
