The controversy over the removal of the bench at a bus stop in Titerroy continues to grow. While the Neighborhood Association has already collected more than 200 signatures against this decision by the City Council, the Transportation Councilor, Víctor San Ginés, has confirmed on Radio Lanzarote that he did not agree with this measure, which was adopted directly by the mayor, Manuel Fajardo Feo, due to complaints from "a neighbor".
"I would have preferred to leave it, but it's not about who decided it. Cándido Reguera also decided to remove it, and when I took over the area, I put it back, but now it has been removed again," San Ginés recalled. The curious history of this stop goes way back. "We've been talking about it for a very long time," the councilor pointed out.
"It seems that the people who stand at the bus stop bother a neighbor, and the complaints to the Arrecife City Council from this man and his family are constant," he explained. Apparently, according to San Ginés, at night the stop "was used by numerous young people to talk, make noise, sit, and even play soccer," he said, adding that "the bench made it the meeting point." "There was excessive noise in the area, and this gentleman and his son's rest was being disturbed."
"Things got quite complicated"
Regarding why they didn't choose to send the Local Police to the area to control, San Ginés says that they did "send them on several occasions," but "things got quite complicated due to the repeated complaints from this family, and a reasonable amount of time was waited until the decision was made to remove the bench."
Faced with the protests from the rest of the neighbors over the removal of this bench, the councilor assures that what they are going to do is find a new location for the stop, which will be "moved in the coming days," "so that people who are waiting for the bus do so in the minimum conditions and do so sitting down."
The councilor also pointed out that in other parts of the city there are similar complaints from other neighbors. "We have many complaints about stops that bother people. These are constant complaints, some are public and others are not, to which I am constantly subjected," the councilman said.
There are complaints in other areas, but it is the only bench removed
However, although there are similar protests in other areas, Víctor San Ginés has acknowledged that this is the only case in which it has been decided to remove the bench or move the stop. "They haven't removed any more. It is the first stop that does not have a bench. It hasn't even been left in the best possible way," the councilman admits.
For its part, the Titerroy Neighborhood Association has been placing chairs at this stop for several days in response to the removal of the bench by the City Council. In addition, last Monday alone, they managed to collect more than 200 signatures denouncing what they consider to have been "an abuse" by the mayor.
In addition, they assure that "the justification that some young people bother some unsympathetic neighbor at night is completely unfounded, since such a circumstance has not occurred for months." In any case, they add that "even if that were the case, the solution should never be to mutilate public furniture, in addition to harming older residents."
Regarding the reason for adopting this decision, they ask that the mayor show the complaints that this neighbor has filed with the Local Police" and criticize that this same person "has part of the ground floor of his house rented as a bar, which does bother the neighbors in the area due to noise at night."
