After eight years of waiting occupying some public space without legal coverage, the City Council of La Laguna managed last month to finally remove up to 42 telephone booths that also failed to comply with the current regulations in force on issues as sensitive to citizens as mobility despite that the use of these facilities by the neighbors obviously disappeared with the technological advances that facilitated the appearance of mobile phones, nowadays within the reach of practically anyone.
Although it was in 2015 when the agreement signed between Telefónica and the Consistory of the City of Los Adelantados that enabled the location of the booths in question on the municipal public space ended, it was not until 2022 when an energetic decision by the current responsible for La Laguna has finally led to the farewell to these hulks with no greater function than to serve as mere witnesses of the past of personal communications.
Since January
Thus, it was last January, as detailed to DIARIO DE AVISOS by the Councilor for Finance, Economic Affairs and Citizen Security of the City Council of La Laguna, Alejandro Marrero, when said negotiating offensive translated into a first requirement for the multinational in question to proceed to remove the 42 booths, without achieving the desired effect.
This was not an obstacle for the Consistory to persevere to the effect in a negotiation that reached its zenith when, already last May, the municipal tone rose to the level of guaranteeing Telefónica that, or proceeded to withdraw the weapons in question , or it would be the City Council itself who proceeded to carry out such a task but, yes, the cost of the work would affect Telefónica -both the liberation of the space itself and the restoration of the pavement where they were located, although for this it would be necessary to go to court .
Such a forceful message caught on, or at least that is demonstrated by the fact that, as a result of the warning, some contacts between the two sides arrived, which was extended to the subcontractor of Telefónica involved and which has finally resulted in – yes, after eight years of waiting – a diligent operation carried out from the 1st to the 18th of last August and which has ended with the disappearance of the 42 cabins in question.
Although Alejandro Marrero was conciliatory, having already fixed the problem, and welcomed the fact that Telefónica had removed the booths, he did acknowledge his satisfaction with the resolution of this issue, which, he acknowledged, “had become a problem for the mobility of the residents, but also the The abandonment of the booths gave a lamentable image of the municipality that could not continue to be tolerated”.
