The Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, announced this Tuesday the publication of the call for subsidies to municipalities to update their urban planning. “Aid that was not granted by the previous Government in the last two years and that we have been preparing since the beginning of this mandate”, Miranda denounced.
This call has a financing line of 2.3 million euros and, once published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC), gives two weeks to the city councils interested in submitting their applications.
You can access all the information at through this link. “It is”, said Miranda, “a commitment to promote the planning of the Islands, because we are convinced that the majority of public policies revolve around land management, so the municipal urban planning regulations must be updated and adapted to the socio-economic needs of each territory”.
This call “comes to respond to a need of many municipalities that cannot face alone the drafting of these instruments, of vital importance for the development of the islands as a whole”, added the Minister, who pointed out that the subsidy can be used for “the drafting of urban and environmental documents necessary for the approval of the general plan, or a substantial or minor modification thereof, of partial and special plans, among others”.
The call, processed through the technical services of the General Directorate of Territorial Planning, will give the City Councils, once it is published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, fifteen calendar days to submit applications.
Miranda stressed that for the award of these subsidies “we will take into account the municipalities with the greatest difficulties, either because they have fewer economic resources or fewer inhabitants, as well as those that, despite these difficulties, have the most up-to-date planning”.
The General Director of Territorial Planning, Onán Cruz, indicated that it is planned in the call that 60% of the amount granted of the subsidy can be paid in advance, provided that the impossibility of undertaking said expense by the municipality is duly justified”.
Cruz recalled that, in addition to these subsidies, work is constantly being done with those municipalities that require it through the technical support office that the Government of the Canary Islands has enabled through the public company Gesplan, and that for this year 2024 has a budget of one and a half million euros.
“From the beginning of this mandate”, concluded Manuel Miranda, “we wanted to convey to the City Councils a message of collaboration and constant support to update those planning instruments that allow a socio-economic development of the Archipelago, under the premises of balance and territorial cohesion, and these measures go in that line”.