The Cabildo of Lanzarote awards the works of the Senior Residence of Tahíche

The Canarian company Satocan, with a bidding budget of 15,104,004 euros, will be in charge of executing this infrastructure

June 26 2024 (14:24 WEST)
Updated in June 26 2024 (20:27 WEST)
Marci Acuña, Oswaldo Betancort, and Jacobo Medina on the grounds of the future Tahíche Senior Citizens' Residence.
Marci Acuña, Oswaldo Betancort, and Jacobo Medina on the grounds of the future Tahíche Senior Citizens' Residence.

The Cabildo of Lanzarote has awarded the tender for the project and construction of the High Requirement Center for the Elderly in Tahíche. The Canarian company Satocan, with a bidding budget of 15,104,004 euros, will be in charge of executing this infrastructure for the Island Institution, which aims to be "a quantitative and qualitative leap in the offer of public social and health places for Lanzarote families".

Oswaldo Betancort has stated that "this millionaire award is very good news for the population of Lanzarote and La Graciosa; and it comes to remedy what I would define as a failed project of which we only found an inaugural stone upon our arrival and everything to be done in the offices", commented the president before emphasizing that "this new Government group does offer answers to the needs of our elders".

The vice president and head of Public Works, Jacobo Medina, said for his part that this tender "is very good news for the entire citizenry of the island." "The Area has worked at full speed to be able to carry out this project, completely abandoned in the previous term and that we were clear that it was a priority that we had to accelerate as much as possible," he added.

Also the Minister of Social Welfare, Marciano Acuña, has valued the work of the Corporation "to resolve the previous contract for non-compliance" and tender with "speed and solvency" the new award. "The population of Lanzarote and La Graciosa has the right to enjoy a social and health center that meets an important part of the demand of those elderly who need medium-high social and health requirements, offering them residential and day service facilities that have the architectural and functional conditions adapted to the special needs of users," added Acuña.

The Cabildo of Lanzarote insists that it decided to repeat the bidding process to award the construction of the social and health center for the elderly and day care center of Tahíche (Teguise), a highly demanded provision that failed in its first public tender during the last legislature.

However, the PSOE recalled last October that Coalición Canaria, hand in hand with Pedro San Ginés, awarded the Senior Residence "without realizing that the land was not suitable" and that it awarded the works to a company "without the capacity to execute it" and that Oswaldo Betancort himself "delayed the permits", according to statements by the councilor of the Socialist Group Isabel Martín. 

As the former head of Social Rights, the councilor recalled the difficulties in starting the construction of that social and health resource due to the delay caused, precisely, by Oswaldo Betancort who "as mayor of Teguise took more than a year to grant inter-administrative cooperation, an essential requirement to start the works."

Now, the new awarded company will have a period of 24 months for the construction of the building once the works begin.  

 

"It's not an end, it's a beginning"

Councilor Marciano Acuña has detailed some of the characteristics of the future residence project, recalling that this new Lanzarote social and health center will have a residential area with 75 places and a day care center with 50 places.

As for the projected building, it mixes private and shared spaces whose objective is the well-being of the residents through the creation of environments that promote the autonomy and independence of people.

Acuña has clarified that, once the infrastructure is built, the maintenance and management expenses of the center will be financed through a cooperation agreement between the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Lanzarote for the provision of services to people in situations of dependency or with disabilities. 

"As it could not be otherwise, we will have the collaboration of the Canarian Executive in this matter, as we will do in the new projects that we will face to modernize and create new social and health places in Lanzarote and La Graciosa; because the Tahíche residence is not the end of any policy, but the confirmation of the beginning of the new policies that this Government group promotes from the Cabildo in this and other matters," adds the councilor, concluding that "the entry into operation of the new residence will mean a significant increase in the social and health offer managed by the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa".

 

Councilor Isabel Martín. Photo: PSOE Lanzarote.
The PSOE recalls that CC awarded the Tahíche Senior Residence "without realizing that the land was not suitable"
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