The Tías City Council celebrates the remarkable citizen impulse that the Municipal Participatory Budget process is having, with 80 proposals registered to date. The residents of the municipality are taking the lead in deciding how to use the 150,000 euros that the City Council has reserved for citizen initiatives, both investment and current expenditure.
This phase of submission of proposals, still in progress and open until July 31, has been promoted through a prominent dissemination campaign: posters in key areas of the municipality, participation in events on the institutional agenda and a digital strategy on social networks - specifically geolocated for Tías - which already accumulates nearly 30,000 local views between explanatory videos and infographics.
The mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz, expresses his satisfaction with the citizen response and clarifies that these proposals are not only about the use of a part of the public budget, "but also foster a close link between the citizens and the Tías City Council as an institution, which is essential for optimal municipal democratic health."
The Councilor for Citizen Participation, Nicolás Saavedra, explains that participatory budgets "are a practical school of democracy: they teach how to dialogue, prioritize collective needs and take responsibility for the common good." Saavedra encourages the population to continue submitting initiatives until the deadline, next July 31.
Among the ideas registered to date are actions focused on security, accessibility, cleaning, environment, care for the elderly, promotion of youth participation, physical and mental health, animal welfare, culture and improvements in public spaces, which demonstrates the diversity of concerns and the collective interest in improving Tías.
Once the submission period has ended, as explained on the official website of the process, open citizen assemblies will be held to improve, specify and discuss the proposals received. Subsequently, a voting phase will be opened in which all citizens of the municipality will be able to directly choose the initiatives that will be executed.
With this participatory budgeting methodology, which combines individual and collective participation models, the Tías City Council, in collaboration with the Cabildo de Lanzarote, aims to strengthen local democracy and ensure that, beyond the economic amount involved, citizens are the true protagonists of the process.
