A week ago, the Governing Group of the Tinajo City Council approved the 2023 budget, which amounts to 10 million euros, of which one million will be allocated to the Department of Sports. This is excellent news for clubs, sports schools and residents of the municipality who will see an increase in investments in sports infrastructure and subsidies.
Improving the well-being of the municipality is a job that we must do daily. For us, sports entities and athletes in general are a fundamental asset in the municipality that we must take care of. However, for other political groups it is nothing more than an opportunity to try to gain electoral benefit without really looking after their needs.
We will always sit down to listen to proposals that represent an improvement for local sport, but we have doubts that, since 2019, there has not been a single proposal in this regard from the municipal opposition and these appear now, when the machinery is set in motion for the elections.
Tinajo was already recognized in the field of sports management in 2016 at the ACAGEDE congress (Canarian Association of Sports Management Professionals) as the best municipality in this area with less than 8,000 inhabitants. Already at that time, there was talk in this forum of allocating 5% of the municipal budget to sports areas. Well, in the current budget the allocation has doubled, reaching 10% of the municipal accounts. To this we must add that, during these years, sports infrastructures have grown and other highly demanded projects in Tinajo are seeing the light.
Very soon we will incorporate the skatepark or a calisthenics park in La Santa; La Vegueta will have a multipurpose space with a paddle tennis court, which we will also incorporate in the center of Tinajo; the long-awaited visor of the stands of the soccer field or the renovation of the equipment of the municipal gym will be a reality throughout the year.
There is no doubt that we have a lot to improve, but we have worked for it from day one and it will be like that until the last. It is possible that the opportunism of some may have some effect, but if we are proud of anything, it is of having sided with the world of sports from minute one. Doing it at a discount doesn't work.
Vianney Rodríguez is Councilor for Youth, Sports, Industry, Commerce and New Technologies of the Tinajo City Council
