The mayoress of candlemas, Mari Britohas spent two years trying to convince Costas to unblock the administrative concessions that the council had been enjoying to manage the municipal swimming pool of La Hornilla and the rotating ‘parking’ located in front of the City Hall, when, just after an extensive rehabilitation of those spaces paid for with municipal money, costs decided not to renew them, closing the pool and leaving the car park free, without being able to charge for it and therefore not allowing it to rotate, with the collapse that this generates in the hull candlestick.
Far from reaching an agreement, Costas insists on recovering the ‘parking’ land, which in its day was the Candela soccer field, to make a beach there, or to be exact, join the Alcalde beach with Los Guanches. To do this, on November 15, 2022, he announced the complete project that was unsuccessful due to the need to readjust the prices due to the difficulty of the project and the extension of the work, as well as adjust the wording to existing inflation. On April 5, the Ministry of Ecological Transition puts out to tender the demolition of the municipal parking lot and the security embankment of Calle La Arena and Plaza de la Patrona for the recovery of marine and terrestrial space in the public domain. The tender comes out with a budget of 123,979 euros.
The first intervention is planned in the parking lot in front of the Candelaria City Hall. The General Directorate of Coast and Sea intends to recover public spaces by removing vehicles and repositioning the wall that supports the car park to the line that delimits the public domain. The Ministry understands that this parking area “produces a clear discontinuity in the coastline located between La Arena beach and the Alcalde beach, so it seeks to unite both to be able to travel the entire stretch on foot without leaving the sea.” The action requires the relocation of the pumping station located in the parking lot, next to the Mayor’s beach, a measure to be agreed upon by Costas and the local government.
This announcement highlights the confirmation that Costas will protect the area that goes from La Arena beach to the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias with a dike. In this section, it is an intervention to protect the buildings affected by the attack of the waves, which worsens over time and requires a solution to maintain it in the long term.
In the case of the protection of the Plaza de la Patrona, a breakwater is being built to extend the one already built to defend the Paseo de San Blas. The Ministry of Ecological Transition affirms that “this is the solution that is being studied, in turn, for the protection of legal residences.” The problem is that “this breakwater reduces the width of the beach and invades the maritime and terrestrial public domain and may even endanger the stability of the beach in the future.” “The project to be developed must seek a solution that is sustainable, from the technical, economic and environmental point of view.”
Alternatives
Faced with the disappearance of the ‘parking’ and the loss of other spaces around the Plaza de la Patrona, with its imminent rehabilitation, the Candelaria City Council is looking for alternatives such as the spaces to be created in the project for Don Sixto Machado’s warehouses, or adapting land such as the one attached to those warehouses or the last one at the beginning of the Los Menceyes boulevard, at the entrance to Puntalarga.
The Candelaria City Council opened a new parking space on Friday on the Rambla de Los Menceyes, located at the last roundabout towards Las Caletillas. In total, 75 new squares have been created, in addition, to beautify the place and provide it with shade, 15 trees were planted.
