The municipalities that have a national park in their territory have asked the Government of the Canary Islands to return the powers it assumed over the national parks if it cannot assume them. The government let the subsidies that come from the Ministry be lost in 2010 and 2011.
The municipalities, grouped in the national association Amuparna, made this proposal at their last meeting in La Gomera and have later reiterated it individually by the Canarian municipalities, according to Antonio Morales (CC), deputy mayor of Tinajo, one of the affected municipalities, which has stopped receiving about 140,000 euros in 2011. According to the Consistory, they were going to use that money to bury electricity lines and do works in the Youth Center, among other things.
Morales points out that "if they cannot manage them, let them return the powers. "If they are not prepared, let them train first and prepare, and then ask for the powers," he says. In addition, he recalls that the money from the Ministry is for the municipalities and the Canarian Government only has to transfer it from one side to the other. Morales assures that the Government has told them that the 2010 subsidy has already been resolved and that they will receive the money shortly, but that the 2011 subsidy has been definitively lost.
Follow the example of Andalusia
For her part, the mayor of Yaiza, Gladys Acuña, the other affected municipality in Lanzarote, points out that "in view of the lost subsidies and those that are in danger of being lost, both the Yaiza City Council and the Amuparna Association have asked the Government of the Canary Islands to take as a reference the procedures of Andalusia, whose experience in the processing of files in this area is very positive".
According to Acuña, Yaiza will continue to demand the granting of subsidies because "with more than 60 percent of the protected territory we cannot lose that money, not only for the Administration, but for the neighbors who own land in which it is not possible to intervene".
S.G. / ACN Press
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