Our municipality faces important challenges that require everyone's effort to leave behind the very hard crisis that we have had to live through. One of the issues that most occupies and worries us is the great disaffection between the Institutions and the citizens themselves, with the risk that this entails. The other, as is well known by many of us who reside in Yaiza, is the deficitary nature of municipal services compared to others with a similar population. A deficit that, among other effects, causes a considerable number of people who work in Playa Blanca to choose to reside and pay their taxes in other municipalities with better services.
In order to propose constructive solutions and not focus these lines on mere criticism of everything that we still do not have, and that we certainly deserve and can achieve with everyone's effort, it may be more appropriate to focus on explaining the lines of action that the Popular Party considers fundamental for the municipality of Yaiza.
The first aspect and, at the same time, commitment are "the forms". Although the City Council is the administration closest to the citizen and the immediate channel for the participation of residents in public affairs, in our particular case this is not the case.
For a relatively short time we have had a Transparency Law that will undoubtedly have positive effects on the functioning of local corporations. It is not now a question of defending the benefits of this legislative text to the hilt and denying that it could not have been done better. However, we must recognize the merit of those who have brought it to fruition, being aware that it is a beginning and that there is still a long way to go.
As concrete measures in this regard, the Popular Party advocates adapting the City Council's website to the 21st century, to the demands of citizens, as is the case in many other local corporations on the island; giving greater publicity to the content of the "provisional approval of municipal ordinances" in order to facilitate the allegations and suggestions of affected residents, and promoting regular meetings in the different population centers coordinated through a Council of Citizen Participation. It is, in short, to achieve a real interaction between the City Council and the residents in order to better address, within the municipal powers and possibilities of the corporation, their problems and concerns.
As for the priority objectives, we strongly support two issues: improving and expanding the services currently offered by the City Council and bringing these services closer to all residents, based on the maxim of "not touching what works well". There are great professionals who perform a commendable job in the various activities offered by the council and our task is to make ourselves available to them and facilitate their work.
We are also very concerned, as are our neighbors, about the recently approved and already challenged General Plan. This urban planning instrument, still pending the Island Territorial Plan, is essential for the present and future of Yaiza. It is not exactly the document we wanted but, as a given fact, we will accept it and try to get the most out of it for the benefit of the general interest. Taking into account the mess that has occurred in this matter, it is essential to guarantee the legal certainty of the investments that may be accommodated in this plan and to prevent the usual arbitrariness from occurring in a document of this entity. Hence, the need to provide the corporation with sufficient technical reinforcement to inform interested parties quickly and agilely, with total transparency and security.
Another of the challenges we must face in the next legislature is to improve and give a new boost to the tourist image of Playa Blanca, as many families in our municipality depend on it. Yaiza has the necessary ingredients to be a first-class tourist destination, such as the friendliness of our people, an excellent quality hotel plant as well as enviable beaches and weather. With all these elements, our effort should focus on making possible a complementary tourist activity and leisure offer that guarantees the competitiveness of our destination compared to other emerging places.
It is also very important that while we invest in our main industry, we do not ignore the signs of exhaustion that are beginning to appear in the model that has prevailed during the last decades. For this reason, our team is committed to working hand in hand with the rest of the productive sectors of the municipality in order to promote them to the extent of local possibilities and competences, in addition to acting as a faithful interlocutor with the rest of the administrations involved in this matter. In this line, the primary sector is key within the economic diversification that must be carried out during the next years.
Today, tourism is the primary source of wealth in the municipality, but Yaiza is and should be much more. It is our conviction and our commitment.
Salvador Martínez, President Manager Popular Party of Yaiza
