The group of the Canary Islands Coalition-Canarian Nationalist Party (CC-PNC) in the Cabildo de Tenerife has denounced this Friday that PSOE and Ciudadanos, who govern the institution, have “backed down” with the Motor Circuit, a project to which it will be dedicated in the 2023 budget, a contribution of around 173,000 euros, but which has an estimated cost of more than 60 million euros.
Tenerife is facing another macro project, a motor circuit “that nobody has asked for”
Know more
In a statement, the CC-PNC group recalls that last May the plenary session agreed on an investment of 5.1 million to start the works, which to date have not been tendered, as well as the commitment to establish a multi-year expense to execute the works, whose total amount is around 60 million euros.
However, the Cabildo budget project for 2023 approved this Tuesday by the PSOE and Ciudadanos, according to CC criticism, “only includes” an investment of 172,952.42 euros in 2023 and some 398,000 euros until 2025.
“It seems that the PSOE and Ciudadanos have backed down” and that the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, “is a hostage of Sí Podemos Canarias, which threatened not to support him anymore” if he continued with the project. The Motor Circuit is, in fact, one of the red lines established in the investiture agreement for Pedro Martín signed between the PSOE and Sí Podemos.
The nationalist group points out that “the only money that the Motor Circuit has spent was that of the autobombo” of Pedro Martín and Enrique Arriaga (Ciudadanos), vice president of the island corporation and one of the main defenders of this multimillion-dollar project.
It refers to a game of more than 605,000 euros allocated only to the promotion of the Circuit in which “an electoral act” was included, as described by CC, with the Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz and the journalist Antonio Lobato in the Tenerife Auditorium and which had a protest from detractors of this project.
That was “a joke to everyone. Even Lobato told the president address your voterss. The real facts are that the PSOE and Ciudadanos have not appropriated the appropriate expense to carry out the works”, denounces CC.
The nationalists demand the immediate convening of the monitoring table of the Motor Circuit in which all political groups and the Automobile, Motorcycling and Real Automóvil Club de Tenerife (RACT) federations must be represented, as approved in May of 2022.
A project of more than 30 years
Plans to build a motor circuit in Tenerife began in 1990, when the former president of the Government of the Canary Islands Adán Martín (Canary Islands Coalition) was president of the Cabildo. The project was presented in 2012 and the first stone was laid in 2016. Both the Minister of Highways, Enrique Arriaga (Ciudadanos), and the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín (PSOE), have explained that the work will be carried out simultaneously in three execution phases: land clearing, embankment reinforcement to prevent runoff that could affect the track, and the building and paddock, where cars and motorcycles are prepared before the race.
From the environmental organization ATAN they criticize that this investment is going to be made with public money because “no company wants to invest in this ruinous project.” “If the circuits on the mainland are economically unsustainable, how much more ruinous will it be on an island and the additional expenses that this entails?” they question. In addition, they have warned that the project has a Expired Environmental Impact Statement (DIA)as is the case with the Port of Fonsalía.
The layout of the circuit, which is already being built in Atogo (south of Tenerife) reaches 4,050 meters in length and the cars will be able to reach maximum speeds of 320 kilometers per hour. The Cabildo justifies that it is an infrastructure that is “highly in demand” by Tenerife motor enthusiasts and that the facility will serve as a tourist attraction. However, according to environmental experts, it is another plan that puts the population of Tenerife and the natural environment in check.
