"Before the political decision to acquire the building, the Historical Heritage Service had already issued reports proposing the suitability, convenience and opportunity for the Cabildo to acquire said property in eight years." This is what a statement issued by the Corporation maintains to defend the controversial purchase of the house on Fajardo Street, for which 1.6 million euros will be paid.
The head of the Cabildo's Historical Heritage Service, María Antonia Perera, appeared this Tuesday in the Plenary Session to respond to the new criticisms made by the opposition. And in her speech, according to the Cabildo, she "clarified" that "the convenience, suitability and opportunity to acquire the property on Fajardo Street, as well as to carry out the restoration project to house the future archaeological museum of Lanzarote in this building, came from the Historical Heritage Service itself."
After Perera's speech, the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, reiterated that "the acquisition of this property, therefore, does not obey 'the president's whim', as the PP repeatedly and intentionally alludes to in its different public interventions."
Perera's appearance in the Plenary Session comes shortly after the tense episode experienced last week, when the Heritage councillor ordered the works on the Arrecife Ring Road to be stopped, based on a report issued by María Antonia Perera herself, which warned that the works were damaging Las Maretas. The following day, San Ginés declared that he neither "understood" nor "shared" that opinion and ordered the works to continue, after requesting other legal reports.
Another 250,000 euros to draft the restoration project
The purchase of the house on Fajardo Street was brought back to the table following a request from the Popular Party, which demanded explanations about the Restoration Project of the future museum's headquarters. As La Voz de Lanzarote reported two weeks ago, the Cabildo has commissioned Tragsa to draft that project for 250,000 euros, and then plans to spend "between 500,000 and 600,000 euros" to execute it.
According to the Cabildo in its statement, the Head of the Historical Heritage Service explained to the Plenary Session that on April 30, "the Service sent to the Cabildo's Contracting Department a report of need and justification of the suitability of signing a management assignment to the State public company Tragsa, to carry out different works aimed at the recovery and museum conditioning of the building."
Specifically, the company must carry out "the Restoration Project, the inventory and cataloging of the Island Archaeological Fund, the creation of a specialized database of said funds, the drafting of the museum project, the specialized study of the chromatic range of the building and the historical study of the building."
