A new controversy is about to confront two of the municipalities of Lanzarote. For many years now, there has been a desire to build a congress center on the Island for the organization of these and other important events that require adequate facilities in terms of space and new technology equipment. Lanzarote continues to grow and it is becoming increasingly imperative to have this type of facility.
Urban planning
Initially, the capital of the Island started as the best placed to address the construction of the congress center, but the serious problems affecting the urban planning of the city, in addition to other circumstances, have so far prevented the planning of the start of these works. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the capital and with the initial approval of its Municipal Ordinance Plan, the City Council of Tías offered land in its territory for the construction of the aforementioned building, which in principle has given a bit of envy to the rulers of the capital.
5,000 meters destined for the construction of the building
Although in any case, the first mayor of Tías disassociated yesterday morning the project of the southern municipality from the initiative of the capital. José Juan Cruz Saavedra confirmed in statements to the program Buenos Días, Lanzarote of the dean station of the Island that, effectively, after the approval of the General Plan the City Council has more than 14,000 square meters of urban land, where something more than 5,000 meters are destined to the construction of a building.
Starting in principle from the needs of the municipality and its citizens, the City Council has estimated that Tías needs a building of "multi-purpose use". The mayor did not want to call the project a congress center, but acknowledged that it would have an eminently social function.
Apparently, the businessmen of Tías also have some envy towards other municipalities. And it is that in Puerto del Carmen there is no hotel complex that has sufficient capacity for the organization of conventions, congresses and other mass meetings. The other two tourist municipalities of the Island do have that possibility, in whose territory are the best hotels in Lanzarote. Even Arrecife has excellent facilities after the opening of the Arrecife Gran Hotel.
With capacity for 700 or 800 people
"Possibly, in that land and with that volume we can talk about a building with a capacity of about 700 or 800 people, which is ultimately what the business sector of the area has demanded, because despite the fact that we have more than 30,000 tourist beds, most of them do not even reach four stars, so they tell us that they do not have the capacity to accommodate large groups of 200 or 300 people in their establishments, because they simply do not have space for it," said Cruz Saavedra.
In addition, as the mayor related, the construction will be used not only for visitors from outside, but also for cultural activities aimed at residents in Tías, such as concerts, meetings and talks.
Cruz Saavedra called the attention of the conejeros businessmen offering the possibility of submitting proposals for the management and administration of the future facilities. "If there are companies that are willing to carry out an administrative concession to put it into operation, the City Council of Tías will welcome them."
On the other hand, Cruz Saavedra recalled that the City Council has recently approved the General Account of the Municipal Budgets of 2004.
Balance between income and expenses
These statements come in response to the negative assessment of the economy of the City Council made by representatives of the Popular Party (PP), the second political force in Tías and the main opposition party. According to the first mayor, the result of the accounts has left a "positive balance of 640,000 euros", which in the words of Cruz Saavedra indicates that "we have balanced income and expenses and we are complying with what is legislated".
The mayor criticized the attitude of the popular, insinuating that the conservative formation wanted the result to be negative "to be giving us firewood, as is their style, but we have fulfilled our objective, we have complied with the level of collection".
Regarding the debt of the Municipal Consistory of Tías, which has been described as enormous by the popular, Cruz Saavedra wanted to clarify that "they are wrong to estimate the credit in 16 million euros, because the reality is that it is 10 million euros." In this sense, the first mayor had no consideration for the conservatives, pointing out that "they have been intentionally wrong to transmit to public opinion what is not correct.
Otherwise, it is that they do not know how to subtract and divide, but only multiply and add, as I have said on other occasions."
