The Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council has announced that it is going to eliminate some 188 public car parks with the remodeling of the central La Rosa street. To “compensate” for the “significant loss” of parking spaces in the very center of the capital, as explained in a statement by the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez (Canary Islands Coalition), the council has bought a property located for 3 million euros at number 54 of the aforementioned road to allocate it to a car park, although it has not detailed whether it will be paid.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife loses more than 1.2 million a year in six public car parks, according to United We Can
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What the City Council has explained is that, after the works, a Green Zone will be implemented in the aforementioned street so that only residents can park, while the rest will have to pay a fee.
The Councilor for Finance and Municipal Heritage, Juan José Martínez, stressed that it would be the implementation, for the first time in the municipality, of regulated car parks with priority for residents, known as the Green Zone, for use at night, in the sectors defined in the El Toscal Special Plan, since the 95 surface parking spaces that remain available for residents in the area surrounding Calle de La Rosa are not enough to cover the demand for 188 spaces that will be eliminated by the remodeling of La Rosa street.
The green parking area involves the configuration of a surface parking system for preferential use by residents, merchants and authorized vehicles, but with time restrictions for non-residents.
The control of vehicles parked within the areas marked with green paint on the asphalt is carried out by means of a license plate reading system using cameras.
Parked vehicles that do not meet the condition of resident or vehicle authorized to park may pay the fees through parking meters or mobile application.
Fewer and fewer parking spaces
It is not the first work carried out in the center of Santa Cruz that ends up eliminating public parking spaces. Works were recently completed on Ni fú Ni Fá street, where about 20 parking spaces were lost and a sidewalk that allowed you to walk along the Santos ravine.
To these must be added the dozens of spaces that were eliminated in favor of the companies that manage the rental of electric scooters, since parking lots for this type of paid vehicle have been located there. There are also fewer car parks since private businesses, hotels, have been given the possibility of installing permanent terraces on the road. Plus those that deal with garbage containers.
Many Tenerife residents who visit the city, or even residents of the city, are forced to leave their vehicles in private car parks, businesses that in many cases charge customers higher rates than what is established by law. A report commissioned by the Consistory itself in 2017 revealed numerous irregularities in the management of seven car parks located in the center of the capital, as the opposition, and specifically United We Can, have denounced on various occasions. The document stated that the rates were between 16 and 66% above what was agreed by the City Council. Despite having formally asked these businesses to lower rates, not all have done so. Nor have they been penalized or asked to return the money overcharged.
In addition, on average they pay about 40 euros a year for each parking space they manage, while the same City Council report establishes that this fee should be almost 400 euros. The loss of income for the Consistory is, therefore, of more than a million euros per year for the 4,100 managed places, according to United We Can.
