Stinga blames the CC for the loss of the 700,000 euro subsidy for environmental recovery in La Graciosa

The Minister of the Presidency of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Andrés Stinga, has responded to the accusations of the Canarian Coalition regarding the return of a subsidy of 700,000 euros destined for environmental recovery actions on the island of La Graciosa.

Stinga, as the former head of the Waste Area, has pointed out that the planned interventions could not be carried out "due to the lack of projects and the lack of collaboration from the Teguise City Council."

The Minister pointed out that the subsidy was requested from the Government of the Canary Islands in April 2019, "surprisingly, with a report of actions without any technical report to support it and without any type of project to execute and signed by Domingo Cejas, as advisor to Pedro San Ginés."

For the realization of the actions contemplated therein, the involvement of the Teguise City Council was required, which had to provide the list and identification of the spaces in which the Cabildo should carry out the management of the collected waste and the pertinent transfer of powers to be able to execute the planned actions.

Likewise, the appropriate agreements were required so that the Pedro Barba pier would be transferred to La Villa by the Demarcation of Coasts of the Canary Islands and that the bathrooms in the camping area, dependent on the Autonomous Body of Natural Parks, would also be managed by Teguise.

Finally, the City Council was asked for information on the places where to extract material for the repair of roads or, if this was not possible, to inform about the characteristics of the materials needed to supply them from the island of Lanzarote.

"The response of the Teguise City Council consisted only of providing municipal land without the necessary authorizations to intervene in private land, which is where the largest amount of materials and waste to be removed is concentrated, leaving the rest of the requests unanswered," he pointed out.

“Once again, the Canarian Coalition deflects its own responsibilities. They ask for a subsidy without projects when they know that the deadlines for direct nominated subsidies cannot be extended,” Stinga reproached, who lamented the lack of collaboration from the Teguise City Council. “If we had had the loyal and sincere collaboration of Teguise, we might have been able to materialize part of the investment, but it has been impossible given the City Council's inactivity,” he said.

Stinga has clarified that, however, part of the planned actions have been carried out with charge to the FDCAN, specifically cleaning and maintenance actions of the public spaces of the Island of La Graciosa and its urban centers of Caleta de Sebo and Pedro Barba, so it did not make sense to try to attribute them to the subsidy now returned.

“The repair of roads and the maintenance works of the pier and the camping area will be done when the City Council fulfills its part. At that time, we will request the subsidy from the Government of the Canary Islands, but with this government group the policy of asking for subsidies to appear in the media and then having to return them due to lack of projects is over,” the Minister concluded.