The rehabilitation project Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park is currently pending receipt of the various sectoral reports that allow final approval, for subsequent bidding. A work that, according to what the Councilor for Infrastructure, Dámaso Arteaga, advanced yesterday, has raised its cost to 12.5 million.
The mayor, in the appearance requested by United We Can in the Control Commission held yesterday, advanced, regarding the agreement signed with the Government of the Canary Islands, by which the regional Executive contributes something more than six million, which have already requested an extension (the third), and the consequent adjustment of the annuities.
The current agreement ends in December 2023, and according to the mayor of UP, Dolores Espinosa, the Canarian Government assures that it has no justification for the money delivered so far, at a rate of 1.9 million per year, since 2018.
Arteaga assured that a first justification corresponding to the initial payment made to the architect, Fernando Menis, of 70,000 euros, has already been delivered, and that, as soon as the project is approved, and it is tendered, the certifications will begin to be delivered, hence they request the extension and adjustment of annuities. According to the mayor, always depending on how long the sectoral reports take, and if no modifications are required in them, this year the project could already be put out to tender, and even try to award the works for the rehabilitation of the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park.
Regarding the other six million that would be needed to complete the financing, Arteaga pointed out that “for now we ask the Canary Islands Government that this collaboration rises to 10 million, we will see the formula, and on the other hand, the Cabildo has already expressed its intention to collaborate”.
However, from the opposition, (Cs, UP and PSOE) criticized the delay in developing a project that has been on the table for many years and that has not yet started. Espinosa explained that for the Government of the Canary Islands this third extension, requested until 2025, is not feasible considering that the project has not even been approved.
Doubts of the PSOE about the rehabilitation of the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park
For her part, the former mayor Patricia Hernández, at the end of the Commission, also questioned whether the definitive approval of the project could be carried out this year, since, “to tender the rehabilitation they need the approval of the project as a whole, and I am also referring to what is going to be done with the Pérez Minik Theater”. According to Hernández, “the project awarded to Menis is comprehensive rehabilitation, and the sectoral reports must respond to all the areas in which the intervention has been divided, not just those that Mr. Arteaga says.”
This, according to the former mayor, is going to delay time a lot because “based on the information we have, Menis’s proposal is to demolish the Minik, something that Urbanism is opposed to.” “So -he continued- if the project is not approved within the house itself, that part will have to be redone, so at the earliest we will go to 2025 to start talking about works”.
Regarding the agreement, the PSOE also expresses its doubts that it can be extended as the City Council wants since “they have already received money, and they have not justified it, it does not matter if they extend the delivery period of the project, if they do not justify they will have to return the money delivered, and make a new agreement”.
