The Arrecife City Council held an extensive plenary session on Friday morning, where political tension was the dominant note. The plenary began with the resignation of the socialist Óscar Torres, who was Councilor for Education and New Technologies. In his farewell speech, Torres pointed out that he is leaving "because he does not agree with the procedure of his party" and that is why he decided to make his position as councilor in the capital's Consistory available to the PSOE.
After Óscar Torres left his seat as councilor, the plenary followed the agenda. The high point of the session came in the debate on the concession for the exploitation of the management of the Puerto del Arrecife Municipal Sports Park and the Municipal Sports Palace. The plenary body has approved that this management be carried out through a private company, which will be put out to tender in the coming days, although with the vote against Alternativa Ciudadana and the abstention of the PIL, PNL and PSOE.
From AC they have requested the Government Group that the management of these sports centers be public, "that it be carried out through a municipal company, since the industrial benefit it generates could be reversed in other facilities", argued Ginés Quintana. Despite this request, which has been rejected by the plenary arguing that "no center in the Canary Islands with these characteristics is managed by the City Council", the fees for its use, the use of the car park and the fee that the company must pay have starred in the debate.
"The use of parking lots is not well included in the specifications", said Carmelo García Déniz. The PNL has also agreed with this socialist position, since it has assured that the residents of Argana could rent the parking spaces, leaving the users of the sports center without a place to leave their cars. In addition, it has also been commented that the prices of the same cannot be higher than that of a private parking lot. García Déniz also added that the price of this parking lot is not included in the specifications and, therefore, will not be part of the fee that the company must pay to the City Council for developing the management of the Puerto del Arrecife Municipal Sports Park and the Municipal Sports Palace.
"For the City Council, the management has zero cost because we understand that these are activities that are going to be very profitable," said the capital's mayor, María Isabel Déniz. "Companies must offer a fee, after having covered the expenses, a percentage of the billing." The first mayor also commented that the company that manages the service will be controlled by the City Council. "We will control the hours of sport that are given, the prices, the state of the material, the facilities, etc. In short, we will have important control so that they do not become free prices."
Opportunistic motion
Another of the moments of political tension that have been experienced during the development of the plenary session, has come with a motion that the PIL has presented so that "the City Planning Plan is not approved until the new corporation is constituted after the elections". Florián Corujo, councilor of this formation, defended it indicating that his political group "feels concern about the possible approval of the plan due to the imbalances that will occur with the massive disqualifications of land".
Andrés Barreto commented that, although they supported the motion, they do not understand how now the PIL is asking for the debate on the plan to be postponed "when this plan is from the PIL". He has called the motion opportunistic and has proposed a transactional "so that the revision of the Plan is not approved until the Basic Adaptation is approved, in the conditions that were agreed in the Board of Spokespersons". Despite this transactional being accepted by the Independent Party of Lanzarote, the proposal has been rejected with the vote against all political groups, except the PIL and AC.
For its part, the PSOE has harshly attacked this proposal from the Independent Party of Lanzarote, since they consider that it is "a motion presented to see what the Socialist Party's position is on the Plan after they left the Government Group". Carmelo García Déniz also explained that they have voted against this motion, but "without this decision meaning that the party is in favor of initially approving the General Planning Plan during the current term of office".