The announcement made last week by the Cabildo to study the transfer to the City Council of San Miguel de Abona of the use and management of the Mirador de la Centinela, has not gone down well in Arona, which will take a supported motion to the municipal plenary session this Thursday unanimously yesterday by the Board of Spokespersons in which the Cabildo is urged to maintain the exploitation of the dependencies and that these include “a natural and cultural interpretation center, with special emphasis on archaeological heritage.”
On the 22nd, the first vice president of the Cabildo, Enrique Arriaga, showed his willingness to leave the use of this public space in the hands of the San Miguel Consistory after a visit to the place in which he was accompanied by the mayor Arturo González, who was “very satisfied” with the announcement and that, in statements that same day to this newspaper, he expressed his intention to promote a hospitality training center.
In that meeting, Arriaga pointed out that “it is very important that the Mirador de la Centinela be put into service and available to residents and visitors as soon as possible” and stressed that the facilities, closed for more than three years, are in ” very good conditions”, so its reopening, he said, “will not require a large investment”.
It must be remembered that the Mirador de la Centinela is located in the protected natural area of Roque de Jama, on land acquired in 1992 by the San Miguel de Abona City Council and which was subsequently ceded to the Cabildo, which built the facilities. A large part of the infrastructure has been built on the land of San Miguel de Abona and another, smaller part, on that of Arona.
From the Arona Government group it is recognized that the Cabildo’s announcement has caused “discomfort” and trusts that the motion approved by the Board of Spokespersons will go ahead this Thursday as an institutional motion with the support of the 25 councilors that make up the Corporation. The Mayor of Aronero, José Julián Mena, thanked yesterday in a statement the support to the members of the Board of Spokespersons.
Canarian Coalition in Arona (party that governs in San Miguel de Abona with an absolute majority) accused Mena of “getting out of the way” and called for both solutions, betting on “an archaeological center that values our history and that is a point of reference for tourists and also hotel training”.
