The deputy mayor of the Tías City Council, Jerónimo Robayna, has also had to respond to the controversy over the Atlántico Shopping Center, in Puerto del Carmen, following the complaint from CC about the "start of prostitution and the alleged exchange or drug trafficking" in the vicinity of this facility. The councilor has pointed out that they are "circumstances of the night" and, in addition, has defended that this space is "much better than two years ago", after the meetings that the City Council has held with the businessmen.
Robayna has pointed out that these issues of "prostitution and drugs" are not the responsibility of the City Council, but of the "Civil Guard, prosecutors and judges" and, in addition, has defended that this area is "always" guarded by a couple of local police officers and Civil Guard agents also usually carry out checks.
Robayna has stated that the agents are imposing fines that "are processed as they have to be processed". In addition, he has acknowledged that the associations of businessmen complained about the activities that were being carried out in this center and its surroundings and, in response, the City Council "acted by talking to the Civil Guard and the Local Police, so that they would be more constant in this area". "I cannot go as a councilor and grab them by the hand and take them to the Civil Guard," he said on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, responding to the complaint from CC.
Prostitution, "difficult" to combat
"From the City Council we cannot do anything else. We cannot get them out of there", he pointed out, while admitting that prostitution is very "difficult" to combat because "it is not that it is on the street, it can be in premises and in houses". The City Council is studying a project to put joint security between the Consistory and the businessmen. "A pilot test can be done," said Robayna.
In addition, the Councilor for Commerce of the Tías City Council has assured that the complaint from the CC spokesperson, Mame Fernández, "harms" the businessmen in the area, as the president of the business association has told him. And it "harms" because, despite the criticisms of CC, Robayna has insisted that in this shopping center "this type of illicit activities such as prostitution or alleged drug trafficking has decreased a lot." "It is being controlled quite a bit and working to improve the area," said the deputy mayor of Tías.
In this sense, Robayna has valued the actions carried out by the City Council, such as the ordinance that limits businesses to having only one ticket agent, that is, a person who advertises the premises on the street. "Right now the ordinance is being complied with. There are those who do not comply and that is what the police are for, to sanction. Before, the streets were full of ticket agents," he recalled, while assuring that the City Council is controlling "the closing hours and has inventoried everything that was in this center", talking to all the owners of the businesses to do so.
Licenses
Robayna has also criticized Mame Fernández for saying that there were businesses that did not comply with current regulations and lacked a license. "He is messing with businesses that are presenting the documentation," he said. Those who do not present it "are sealed and the seal is removed when they have all the documentation". "There is someone who may not have it, but it is in the procedure", he defended.
