Nuria Cabrera, head of Urban Planning for the Arrecife City Council, said at the end of the plenary session that she understands the expectation surrounding the progress of the General Plan for the capital, but said she is obligated to first correct the errors derived from the adaptation of the current General Plan (year 97) to the laws of Territorial Planning of the Canary Islands. "It would make no sense to start working if we have not corrected the errors of the adaptation," she commented. "Once the errors are corrected, we will see what Plan we are left with," she added.
The City Council sent a letter yesterday to the Canary Islands Territorial Planning and Environment Commission (COTMAC) requesting a meeting to report on the errors derived from the adaptation in order to try to correct them.
The councilor, who apologized in the plenary session for not having convened the Monitoring Committee of the Plan, clarified that she has not suspended that body of debate at any time and promised that she will convene the Committee within fifteen days. "I would like to finish the legislature saying that a consensus Plan is coming out," she pointed out.
For his part, Andrés Barreto, spokesperson for Alternativa Ciudadana, emphasized that the weekly meetings of the Commission have been a tremendously enriching exercise with a view to what he called a new General Plan for Arrecife. Alternativa defended, in a motion approved unanimously, the continuity of the work of the Commission because there are some groups that have not yet expressed their concerns. In addition, the popular councilor Eugenio Hernández said that it would be advisable to bring the errors detected in the basic adaptation to the Monitoring Committee of the Plan so that they can be debated by the representatives of the different political formations.
Island port authority
The plenary unanimously approved a motion from the PNL requesting the management of the port of Los Mármoles through a participatory and representative island port authority. Soledad Martín explained that a port such as Arrecife of general interest, after the reform of the Statute of Autonomy, would enter the Canary Islands Ports Law, which has created an entity called Puertos Canarios, a single and centralized authority. "The union representation, that of business organizations and the representation of the Island practically disappear and the representation of the Island is reduced by half," she expressed. Arrecife will seek the support of the Cabildo and the other municipalities so that the eight parliamentarians from Lanzarote defend the creation of an island Port Authority in the regional Chamber.
Andrés Barreto supported the initiative, but warned that Coalición Canaria accuses Spain of not sending what belongs to the Archipelago and when it sends it, it does not distribute it equitably. The popular Eugenio Hernández said that the decentralization of the chambers of commerce is an example to follow in the ports. He advocated for a port law that addresses the requests of each Island.
María Isabel Déniz hopes that if the island management of the ports is not complete, at least it will be shared. "I suppose that there is an approach towards the Canary Islands and we can take advantage of it to demand that Lanzarote have direct management of port activity," she added.