The Canary Islands Vice President and Minister of Finance, Román Rodríguez, has indicated this Monday that the port of Fonsalía is “unviable” and has advocated for working in a alternative “bankable, sustainable and fast” in Los Cristianos.
Rodríguez made these observations during an institutional visit to Arona, where he coincided with its mayor, José Julián Mena, on the need to improve the municipality’s endowments and infrastructure and adapt them to its current demographic reality.
All this, says a note from the Ministry of the Vice-presidency, “from criteria of environmental sustainability, economic rationality and enhancement of public services.”
He has referred in particular to the improvement of the facilities of the port of Los Cristianos and its land accesses as one of the main axes of the development of Arona in the coming years, and has publicly expressed his frontal rejection of the Fonsalía project.
It has appealed for cooperation between the Port Authority, the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo of Tenerife and the City of Arona to provide “a prompt solution” to the problems raised in Los Cristianos, each of them in their respective areas of competence.
He has advanced that the regional Executive will help Arona to solve the specific problem of the port of Los Cristianos with “bankable, sustainable and fast” solutions, and has insisted on the need to find “political, social and citizen consensus” around this proposal improvement of Los Cristianos.
Rodríguez defends that the burying of the port access to the El Mojón area will allow a road solution to be provided to the current problem and also for the future growth of the city.
Meanwhile, José Julián Mena thanked “the sensitivity” of the vice president with the needs of Arona and insisted on improving land mobility in the core of Los Cristianos as a decisive factor for the greater efficiency of the port and the development not only of its municipality but also also of the islands with which it is connected.
The mayor of Arona has reiterated the convenience of burying Chayofita avenue from its beginning in the port environment to the area of the El Mojón partial plan, practically at the exit of the TF-1 highway, saving, in addition, the roundabout that begins to Avenida Juan Carlos I.
Mena has ensured that this solution would have an approximate cost of around 40 million euros, an amount “much lower” than the construction of a port in Fonsalía, in Guía de Isora.
During the institutional visit to Arona, the Canarian vice president has also promised to replace the health clinic in Las Galletas, which has “obsolete” facilities that are insufficient to serve a population of almost 10,000 people.
The General Directorate for Heritage and Contracts has already begun the study to determine the viability of the old BBVA building in Las Galletas as a new health center, either through the rehabilitation of the property or the replacement of another in the current structure.
In the same way, Rodríguez has promised to accelerate the process for the construction of the Los Cristianos health center on land that the City Council gave thirteen years ago, in order for the Canary Health Service to put out to tender the new project before the end of year.