The City Council of La Laguna has sent a letter to the catering establishments with temporary terraces on public roads so that they can proceed with their progressive removal, since the Government of the Canary Islands has established the end of the restrictions associated with the pandemic.
In his letter, the mayor, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, recalls that one of the main measures that the City Council took to favor the restaurant and hotel industry was to authorize the expansion and installation of terraces on public roads, without the application of the corresponding fees.
The measure, applied immediately after the end of the state of alarm by means of a decree from the Mayor’s Office, and “which was widely applauded by the sector”, has benefited around 500 establishments during the last year and a half, indicates the Consistory.
Most of them installed new terraces in parking areas or expanded existing ones, “helping to deal with capacity restrictions and other limitations imposed by the health situation,” says the mayor.
Gutiérrez recalls that after the decision of the Government of the Canary Islands to eliminate all the restrictions associated with the pandemic, “the exceptional situation that was linked to the expansion of the terraces on public roads has ceased to have an effect.” This implies that the terraces that obtained a provisional authorization for the use of public roads must begin to be withdrawn.
Normalize the terraces
However, the mayor invites companies that want to normalize the situation of their terraces to make the corresponding request and the necessary procedures for the occupation of the public domain through the Department of Works, so that its viability can be analyzed and, where appropriate, approved by the municipal technical service.
The municipal councilor recalls that since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, the City Council of La Laguna enabled a package of urgent and exceptional measures “with the aim of mitigating in the business sector, and especially in the field of restoration, the drop in income derived from the limitations imposed by COVID-19.”
Among these measures are direct aid to small and medium-sized companies, the approval of tax advantages, the use of interior furniture on public roads within the historic complex and the extension of opening hours of establishments, actions “that have contributed to the maintenance of the commercial activity of the municipality”, is collected in the text.
The City Council of La Laguna wants to continue supporting a fundamental sector for the economy and on which a large number of jobs depend, with actions that contribute to recovering a productive fabric that has been particularly affected by the COVID crisis, to which they are now adding the effects of the war in Ukraine, comments the mayor, who appreciates “the enormous effort and involvement of the restaurant and hotel companies in our municipality to get ahead in particularly adverse conditions”.
