“Do you want a tram to Los Rodeos?”

“Lift the suspension and reactivate the service contracts to carry out the process of citizen participation and public information corresponding to the expansion of Line 1”. It is the exact agreement taken at the last Metrotenerife Board of Directors with the reluctance, for different reasons, of the opposition groups in the Council. The planned amount to carry it out is 60,000 euros. It does not say so explicitly, but it is a question of a citizen consultation to guarantee that the tram arrives from La Trinidad avenue, in La Laguna, to the Tenerife North Airport, in Los Rodeos.

Metropolitano de Tenerife has approved, according to the sources consulted, to carry out a double consultation. One in which “all citizens of Tenerife would participate, who must answer yes or no to the extension of the tram to Los Rodeos.” The second would be limited to the residents of La Laguna, who would express their opinion on the best possible route, among the three that the Cabildo has put on the table. It is an old aspiration. A project that would cost the public coffers between 58 and 68 million euros, according to the option that was finally chosen among the shuffles.

The first would run through the streets El Juego, Seis de Diciembre and Juana Blanca; a second would cross the Pablo Iglesias, Antonio González Ramos and La Candelaria avenues, while the third would go parallel to the TF-5, along Leocadio Machado street. Although the first was the one that the technical reports valued the best, it was also the one that aroused the greatest public rejection.

“More transparency”.

The Popular Party has demanded “clarity and transparency” in this citizen consultation. Manuel Fernández, deputy insular spokesman, values: “The council has approved spending 60,000 euros for a participatory process, without clarifying whether the result will be binding or not.” He points out that “there are discrepancies of opinion on this between the parties that support the island government.” Fernández points out: “We want to know what the true role of citizens is in this process.” In addition, he will ask for “clarification” on what would happen if the circumstance arose that in the island consultation the yes to the tram would win and in La Laguna, the no. It states: «Would the Cabildo execute the project, taking into account the position made public by the mayor of La Laguna (Luis Yeray Gutierrez) at the time?”. He clarifies: “During the citizen assembly in which the three possible routes were announced, he affirmed that if the lagoons opposed, the tram would not be carried out.” Fernández urges the government team to “an exercise in active listening and to explain things well.” He adds: «If, as the Minister of Roads says, the consultation were not binding, spending 60,000 euros in a participatory process would be an unacceptable price. Wet paper”.

“Poorly posed.”

The counselor of CC-PNC Félix Fariña points out that the process “is poorly planned, because it is one thing to consult the public and another to be inhibited when making decisions”. Rate: «The mayor of La Laguna has said that he is against; Arriaga, in favor, and Pedro Martín, does not know or does not answer ». In other words, he adds, “there is uncertainty about the project.” He considers that «the first thing is to make it clear if it is important for Tenerife and there is a will to carry it forward. If they are not going to do it, why consult the public? ». Fariña insists that before a public consultation “they must meet with the political groups and establish the roadmap for guided transport in Tenerife. We are talking about public money ». In addition, the counselor points out that “it is a decision that affects the entire island. Who are they going to consult? Will the opinions of a person from La Laguna have more value than another from Güímar or Buenavista? To the tourists? To taxi drivers? Will it be binding? » He concludes: «Pedro Martín must say if he wants to take the tram to Los Rodeos and not transfer the decision to the public. That is not democracy, nor citizen participation, but rather putting oneself in profile ».

“Neither real nor effective.”

Sí Podemos Canarias –with the collective sense of the group in this matter– criticizes that the proposed consultation “is not a real and effective participatory process that brings together the different sectors of citizens affected by this project to listen to their needs and proposals.” For the group, “it is a mere survey of the population to choose between several predetermined options, which limits the ability of people to come up with possible alternative solutions.” They highlight the “bad approach, since if it is going to consist of asking citizens which route they prefer out of three possible routes, we are no longer talking about citizen participation as such.” They recall that “our group paralyzed that this project could come out without a prior participatory process.” In addition, “we have requested that the consultation not only be done in the Metropolitan Area in person, but also that it be possible to participate from the rest of the Island electronically.” Therefore, they underline, “We are going to follow the whole procedure to make sure what is done and what is not.” They announce that “this month we will ask the Plenary Committee about the linkage of the result.” And they conclude: «What has been done so far by the Government team in citizen participation is very deficient, sticking to association or volunteer actions; people are not involved in making relevant decisions and the programmatic agreement that we signed with the PSOE is not fulfilled ”.