By C. S. G.
Many restaurants and other types of commercial premises in Playa Blanca do not meet the minimum required sanitary conditions, according to Public Health inspectors, but the Yaiza City Council, which is ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with these regulations, is doing nothing about it, as publicly denounced this Friday by the director of the Health Area in Lanzarote, Juan Manuel Sosa.
The highest representative in health matters of the Canary Islands Government on the island, given this detected situation that worries him, plans to give a 'telling off' to the mayor, José Francisco Reyes, on this issue. "There is a certain apathy from the Yaiza City Council, and I am going to try to meet with the mayor in the coming weeks, because the issue of public health in that municipality is not as it should be," Sosa told La Voz, accusing Reyes of doing "eyes closed politics."
"There are many commercial premises and some businesses in Playa Blanca that have been visited by our Public Health inspectors and do not meet some of the operating requirements. The corresponding report has been passed on to the City Council so that it proceeds to demand that corrective measures be established, but the City Council has ignored the recommendations of the inspectors," complained the director of the Health Area.
Sosa explained that the corresponding procedure, once the Public Health inspectors notify the detected infractions, consists of the City Council sending its own inspectors to indicate in each of those establishments that corrective measures be taken, and then monitor that this is complied with, and if not, close the establishment.
The director of health did not specify what type of sanitary anomalies were detected, but explained that they are "normally small infractions, but a small infraction in one, and another, and another premises, ultimately means that many commercial and hotel establishments in Playa Blanca are not meeting all the sanitary conditions that they should have for their operation to the public."
The health center
In another order, Juan Manuel Sosa revealed that the Regional Ministry of Health is currently preparing the mandatory report for the Government of the Canary Islands to approve the necessary rezoning for the construction of the Playa Blanca health center, and attributed to the Yaiza City Council the current delay in contracting the project, for not having been the Consistory itself that carried out the rezoning.
"I attribute to the City Council the fact that they have not bothered to make a rezoning of the land so that it meets the conditions for the construction of the health center to be carried out. Since 2002, which was when the project became known, Yaiza has had four years to take the rezoning to the plenary, and has not done so. The Ministry of Health will be able to do it anyway because article 47 establishes that the regional government, for reasons of social necessity, can directly carry out an urban modification of a plot, but if Yaiza had already done it, it would already be done, and the Government would not take long now to have to do that prior procedure to be able to tender it," Sosa argued.
La Graciosa
What is much closer, and will even be put out to tender before the one in Playa Blanca, according to Sosa, is the La Graciosa health center. It will actually be the second call for tenders for the execution of that work on the island of La Graciosa, since the first, published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands on December 13, was declared void, due to the fact that no interested company submitted, given the low execution budget (201,743 euros).
Now, and with a higher budget, there are already companies interested in executing the work, revealed Juan Manuel Sosa. "The La Graciosa health center is already in contracting and in one of the next Governing Councils it will be put out to tender. It is imminent and will come out before the one in Playa Blanca, because this one still needs the mandatory report for the rezoning," said the director of the Health Area, while anticipating regarding the one in La Graciosa that "in two weeks we will already have the publication in the Official Gazette, and there are several companies that are interested."
