The San Bartolomé City Council has presented a document with allegations to the Island Plan of Lanzarote (PIOL), after the draft of this and its Initial Strategic Document were published on May 5 in the Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas, opening the consultation and allegation process, as the council understands that this “is not fair and does not reflect the current reality of the municipality.”
The mayor of San Bartolomé, Isidro Pérez, on behalf of the Government group, has expressed his disagreement with the PIOL, accusing “comparative grievances with respect to other municipalities” and “imbalances in socio-economic, environmental and demographic attention.” In this sense, Pérez wanted to break down some of these claims that, in the opinion of the municipal government, represent "an outrage for the municipality and for the residents of San Bartolomé."
“Our Government group has, as it could not be otherwise, a firm commitment to the balanced development of the municipality,” said the mayor. “This must be understood from a triple variable: environmental, economic and social. We want a better San Bartolomé, with more opportunities for our people, greater protection of our environment and fair and functional territorial planning.”
In its argument, the council invoked three essential legal principles that should guide all public action: the promotion of favorable conditions for social and economic progress and for a more equitable distribution of regional and personal income; the guarantee of equality, non-discrimination and participation in public life, as well as respect for human rights, and the purpose of the island plans to promote sustainable and balanced development, both territorial and social and economic, with special attention to residents in rural or protected areas.
Isidro Pérez recalled that, during the processing of the previous PIOL, more than three decades ago, the municipalities of Lanzarote reached a consensus by which San Bartolomé renounced developing tourist uses on its coastline, despite being suitable for it, in exchange for promoting its economic development north of the LZ-2, in the area where the commercial and industrial center of Playa Honda is now located. “We do not intend to cling to the agreements of that time, but we do remember that the principle of interterritorial balance remains in force, and that the new island planning must respect that consensus philosophy.”
In this sense, the document of allegations underlines the privileged connectivity of San Bartolomé, with infrastructures such as the LZ-2, the promenade that connects Costa Teguise with Puerto Calero, its proximity to the airport and its important Commercial and Industrial Zone in Playa Honda. To all this is added the high frequency of public transport in the area.
Despite these advantages, the mayor criticized that the PIOL “discriminates against our municipality in favor of others, which already have large tourist, commercial and industrial areas.” As an example, the planned planning for San Bartolomé is contrasted with that of the neighboring municipality of Teguise: "While in the first the global uses are limited to environmental and primary functions, without including areas of opportunity for new developments, in Teguise tourist, residential, industrial, endowment and community uses are combined, even in areas not yet transformed." Thus, the mayor has highlighted that “once again, outside of what already exists, everything is a natural and rural system in San Bartolomé, while in municipalities such as Teguise new structuring elements of the island model are incorporated.”
The mayor has firmly maintained that the draft of the PIOL “does not contribute to a balanced distribution of uses or equipment of supramunicipal importance, nor does it promote the territorial, social and economic balance required by current legislation.” “For this reason, we defend that the document must be reviewed and improved, both in its technical and environmental drafting, and is willing to collaborate in the preparation of a fairer and more representative plan of the interests of all seven municipalities of Lanzarote and the Chinijo Archipelago.”
In this line, the City Council has presented more than a dozen specific improvement proposals, focused on different areas of the municipality, including: Mozaga, several points of San Bartolomé, Montaña Blanca, Güime, Majada de Güime, Playa Honda, as well as a proposal for primary-livestock land use, and others of a road, environmental and energy nature.