The end of the year is approaching and it is time to take stock of what has been achieved during the last year, and these words that I write do not intend to be an ode to our management in the Yaiza Town Hall, rather, they intend to be a public reflection on what is going well and what we should continue to improve.
There is data such as that achieved in the latest Management Audit report of the Government of the Canary Islands for the 2023 financial year that once again places Yaiza in a privileged position in Lanzarote and the Canary Islands. This report positively assesses economic, financial and budgetary management, placing us above the required levels, proof of this is our impressive treasury surplus that reaches 57 million euros, or the surplus achieved in 2023, which was above 9 million euros.
This report also highlights that our Town Hall is above the Canary Islands average in collection efficiency, as well as the income from ICIO obtained, as a result of the projects and building permits authorized by the Yaiza Town Hall for that year, without forgetting, of course, the compliance of taxpayers and their commitment to their municipality.
In addition, this report also audits expenses and the results are truly exceptional. We continue to be the Town Hall of Lanzarote that invests the most per citizen, we continue to be the Town Hall that pays suppliers the soonest, we continue to be one of the few Town Halls in the Canary Islands that has no debts or financial burdens and our reduction in current spending stands out. This data helps us to continue being the municipality with the lowest unemployment rate in the entire province of Las Palmas and the second lowest in the entire Canary Islands. A fact that really continues to motivate us to continue working along these lines, as we believe that job creation continues to be the best way to dignify the lives of those of us who reside here. Investment continues to be very strong in our municipality, and will continue to be our benchmark in terms of welfare in multiple aspects, as we have several projects in the drafting stage that will be put out to tender in the coming months, including the Playa Blanca Library and the Family Respite Center, among the most outstanding.
On the other hand, it is also appropriate to take stock of what we know we have to improve, and it is clear that a pending issue, I do not hide, is the opening of the Playa Blanca Sports Hall, and it is true that we have had the bad luck that the company awarded the work is in a delicate situation of bankruptcy proceedings, which left works half done in the Spanish territory, but it is also true that our Hall is approximately 95% completed. Our technicians and the government team are focused on finding a solution to complete the remaining percentage without breaking the law, respecting the deadlines and the rights that the law confers on the awarding company, but with sufficient clarity to make the decisions that the law allows us to recover and regain control of that work, complete it and put it at the service of citizens, which is what matters to our neighbors.
Another of the issues in which we have to continue improving despite the sacrifices that the Town Hall has already made is in relation to the Waste Collection Service, we need to precisely award the new contract for this essential service that we know is still very improvable. On up to two occasions, this Town Hall has put the new service out to tender with new conditions and on two occasions the companies interested in accessing the service have challenged them because they understand that they harm their rights. From Yaiza we understand that we must be very demanding with this service because we are tired of breaches when we do pay the invoices on time.
Once again, the rights of these companies must be respected, as is customary in this Town Hall, but we are certain, sure and confident that these rights cannot be above the rights of the citizens who live and reside in Yaiza for even a second longer. Therefore, our main objective for 2025 is to be able to contract a Waste Collection Service, in accordance with the new reality existing in the municipality and, above all, in accordance with the environmental and social quality parameters that the Yaiza Town Hall has to offer in this 21st century.
Another of the issues in which we have made great progress is in the drafting of the new Yaiza General Urban Planning Plan, which is already out to tender. The contracting of its drafting is excellent news that we hope will be completed in the first quarter of 2025, with some draft probably at the end of the year and our intention is to be very aware of meeting the deadlines knowing that it is a process as complex as it is necessary.
Therefore, neighbors, Yaiza advances, Yaiza grows and Yaiza invests. We have identified where we have to improve and have no doubt that we will do everything possible to offer even better management data.
My work as a councilor of the Cabildo de Lanzarote
This year has also been a year in which for some moments I have felt discouragement, frustration and I have experienced firsthand the malpractice that sometimes, perhaps too often, is exercised in island politics. You see, as a councilor of the Cabildo in the opposition, I have presented numerous initiatives in all the plenary sessions, initiatives aimed at improving the primary sector, the tourism sector, the third sector, the improvement of infrastructure and all of them from a constructive point of view, you already know me, but 90% of each and every one of the initiatives that we have presented have been rejected outright by a government that only offers show business, by a government focused on photos, on 'goodism' and on hollow and empty words. A government of Oswaldo Betancort that does not provide solutions to the real problems that the island suffers, and I am referring fundamentally to the issue of water. The management of the integral water cycle is a crucial issue for the island of
Lanzarote. The issue of water is an issue that has been bogged down for a very long time and that this latest declaration of water emergency is not going to be the solution to the great challenges that the Integral Water Cycle has, because among other things this Cabildo has shown us that it has no projects to improve water losses, to improve the supply network, to improve the supply of agricultural water and many of us fear that the announcements in this matter are also certainly empty and have lost a year and a half of management trying to approve, by dismissing the previous manager, a water emergency who knows for what.
Water is not the only problem that Lanzarote has, the lack of housing for the middle and working classes is an imperative need for those who need to become independent or need a place to reside while they work with us. People do not understand deadlines or good intentions, people want solutions.
Our health system also requires a rethinking. The planning of health resources is becoming an increasing challenge. Our population grows but the number of doctors, specialists, nurses and health centers, necessary as the long-awaited Argana Alta Health Center, does not grow in the same way.
Security has also become a major threat to the people of Lanzarote. We see how common crime has grown and we see that the police endowments of the National Police and the Civil Guard have not increased places. It also does not help to have bases of the Canarian police in Gran Canaria and Tenerife and none in Lanzarote, therefore it is another of the issues that must be addressed urgently in 2025.
In summary, I want to state that I am not against the Cabildo de Lanzarote organizing events such as Saborea, Navilán, Campanadas and other events of a cultural and/or festive nature, far from it, but it is difficult to digest almost 4 million euros of expenditure in Saborea and see how residents of Los Valles, del Cuchillo or Máguez and numerous towns in Lanzarote do not have running water in their day to day, therefore let these words also serve for us to make a deep reflection on what is happening in Lanzarote, and that we do not settle for what this president offers us, who more than a president seems like the Emir of Qatar, offering the people's money only bread and circus. If at least we had the problems previously solved, it could have a pass, but the reality does not differ from what I have described above.
Even so, and in my work as a councilor of the Cabildo, I will continue to extend my hand to contribute to a more serious government, more rigorous in spending, and above all focused on solving the main problems we have in Lanzarote. There you will find me.
This 2025 we deserve more and we deserve better management and that is my wish at the island level. In any case, I want to wish the people of Lanzarote happy holidays and to enjoy family and friends, and let's not lose hope.
