The Plenary Session of the Cabildo approved yesterday by majority, with only three votes against Sí Podemos Canarias, the proposal to support the candidacy of Tenerife as the headquarters of the European Tourism Agency, included in an amendment presented by the PSOE to a motion of CC, in which it was added that the support was for the candidacy proposed by Santa Cruz, and that it did not go ahead.
An extraordinary session of the Plenary that was held at the request of the CC, PP and Sí Podemos Canarias, after the June ordinary session did not give time to debate the motions, since, according to these three parties, the island government used the appearances volunteers to delay plenary and come to this debate.
Regarding the headquarters of the European Tourism Agency, the area’s insular director, Laura Castro, defended that “we are not opposed to Santa Cruz being able to host it, but we understand that once it reaches Tenerife it will be valued so much with the agency as with the municipalities which is the ideal place”. However, from CC, Diana Mora criticized that “with this amendment the only thing they have tried is to make the island’s capital invisible.” Meanwhile, from Sí Podemos Canarias, its spokesperson María José Belda denounced that “we have an island that cannot bear any more load and you come here to tell us if Tenerife or Santa Cruz is the venue.”
Precisely, the Plenary also rejected by majority the motion presented by Sí Podemos Canarias in which it advocated a tourist moratorium to reorient the model, due to the intense development of projects and overpopulation. However, all the other parties considered that this was not the time to propose a moratorium on the main activity on the Island, although they agreed to study Tenerife’s carrying capacity, which was another of the points of the motion, but not limit it to tourism, but include the general population.
Likewise, the Plenary also rejected the motion of the CC to withdraw the draft of the Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG) of the Teide National Park. Instead, an amendment by PSOE and Sí Podemos Canarias was approved, with their votes and those of Ciudadanos, in which “the Government is urged to extend the period of public information for the time necessary to guarantee a broader debate and greater consensus. , in which a better adaptation of the normative text is achieved […]as well as carry out a wide dissemination work to the citizenry”.
During the debate, the spokesman for Citizens and the Minister for Roads and Mobility, Enrique Arriaga, stated that “there is a serious error in the plan, because according to the data verified by scientific methods in the Mobility area, there is an error of two million of visitors with respect to what is contemplated in the PRUG”. In this sense, he denounced that the document had been prepared “without counting on the Roads and Mobility areas of the Cabildo, when the PRUG proposes a radical transformation of the uses of mobility inside the park”, as well as that the document “contemplates the construction of a series of infrastructures outside the park, whose dimensions have not been evaluated”. “We share the protection of the environment, but not the prohibition”, he affirmed, announcing that of his presented allegations, “eight are binding”. “It will be the Government that will have to assess whether the plan can be modified or whether it must be withdrawn and a new one drawn up,” he pointed out.
The Minister of Management of the Natural Environment, Isabel García, added that “we consider that the document is very improvable” and stated that “if it were not satisfactory and collected the interests of the groups, that is when we would propose a withdrawal”.
From CC, Blanca Pérez criticized that the document has not been discussed with the public and that it is “a pure fallacy.” Meanwhile, the popular councilor Valentín González supported the withdrawal of the PRUG and pointed out that “the Government’s amendment is late, because on the Ministry’s website the period has been extended to the 26th”.
