José Manuel Bermúdez (CC) faces his fourth term as mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the “hope” that they will be four “very productive” years, in which he affirms that many projects that the City Council has been working on for years will come true. . Among them, recovering the Chicharrero coastline, for which he believes that “it is time for Costas to invest in Santa Cruz.”
-How do you face your fourth term as mayor?
“I know it sounds cliché, but I’m really excited because I think it can be a very productive mandate. We have the City Council and Santa Cruz underway, with many initiatives, works, drafting of projects… I am happy because many issues that we started working on three, four or five years ago, are finally being carried out and we will see them completed in this term” .
-Repeat with the PP as a government partner, how is the relationship?
“We have a fairly correct and cordial relationship because we have been governing together since 2015 and, therefore, there is already a knowledge of the people and the projects, and we agree on many things and those on which we don’t, we always try to resolve them accordingly. behind closed doors, within the political agreement we have. But it is evident that it is a political agreement that gives stability to Santa Cruz, that is, it is an agreement that is not news because of the disagreements, it is news because of the projects, because of the management, because of the administrative machinery, because of starting or finishing things. ”.
-And how do you face the relationship with the opposition for this mandate?
“We always try to seek agreements, our management idea has to do with adding the other parties to the city project, because the more things are agreed upon, the better. The opposition has to do its job and I respect that, as long as we can talk. So we have always maintained an attitude of transparency and collaboration. Another thing is that from the other side you want it or not. If the scenario continues as in the last three years, it will be difficult. For example, right now we are going to have to hold a plenary session this month as a result of some allegations regarding a budget modification, which is a legitimate instrument, with the idea of boycotting the areas from having these resources to meet their responsibilities. Those types of maneuvers who are harmed are the city and the neighbors, and there they will always have us against them”.
-How are you going to combine being mayor and deputy of the Parliament of the Canary Islands?
“I am not the first nor am I the last, surely, who is a mayor and a parliamentarian. I will look for relationships that allow me to improve the management of the City Council. And I am not going to be the only parliamentarian in the plenary session, there is the spokesperson for the opposition, of the Socialist Party, who is a parliamentarian, and also José Alberto Díaz (CC). So I hope that this chicharrera presence in Parliament will help to improve management in Santa Cruz”.
-And what are your objectives for this mandate?
“We have a city project that we have been working on for a long time and that has to do with increasing the quality of life through investments in neighborhoods and towns, in sports facilities… We have paved more than 90 streets in less than a year and, in terms of playgrounds, in the next six months we will install another seven or eight. Another objective is to continue maintaining Social Services as the area with the most economic resources, because we have to continue investing in helping those families who need it most. And we will also ask the Cabildo and the Government for help because there is no reception center in Tenerife like the one financed for the most part by the City Council, their work is practically insular because many people from other municipalities who do not have them end up at that center. lodging or day resources. And, in some way, the Council and the Government have to create policies for the municipalities to create these resources. The economy is another package within the city project. We have to continue promoting consumption, commerce, tourism, restaurants and we also have the ability to attract investments to continue promoting the economy to generate jobs. It should be noted that the Santa Cruz City Council, as a result of the work that a team of managers was commissioned to carry out, creating the European Affairs Office, is considered the 45th institution in all of Spain, in terms of attracting European funds, and the first in the Canary Islands. And then we have objectives that have to do with the recovery of the coastline.”
-Which ones specifically?
“The work that is going to be completed before the end of the Valleseco year is important, but we will have to think and sit down with the rest of the administrations and the Port Authority, for the rest of the Sol y Sombra project, because, for Now, only one part is being executed, which is that of puddles, but the project of the great beach remains. We must determine very well if we are in a position, for the next 10 years, to face the completion of that coastline, and if we are in a position to present a project with these characteristics to the Government of Spain and it is capable of assuming it, as the Government assumed. Santa Cruz de La Palma beach, who paid for it in full. Because the part that has been made of Valleseco has been between the Canarian Government, the Cabildo, the Port Authority and the City Council. Costs here has put zero euros. So what I’m saying is that it’s time for Costas to invest in Santa Cruz. And there is also the port-city link project, in which the creation of an agreement between the City Council, the Government, the Cabildo and the Port Authority is now proposed and the possibility of the Government of Spain also joining, in such a way so that we can guarantee the financing of the elements that are in the port-city link and that have to do with buildings and parking. Collaboration with the Port Authority is very important in this mandate. Then, on the other hand, some other coastal issues, such as Añaza or the Palmetum ring, where we have projects underway and I hope that in this mandate we can at least start them, and achieve zero discharge. And this is going to be the mandate where we are going to approve the modification of the PGO to allow investments in Las Teresitas beach. We have to provide sanitation, Las Teresitas does not have sewage, it does not have lighting, it does not have a promenade like other beaches in Tenerife, where you can walk without having to get into the sand.”
-And the PGO?
“We have a PGO that was canceled and now we have to start over. We have approved the advance and I hope that, at the very least, in this term we will have the initial approval approved. Meanwhile, by way of modification, we can advance things, such as the Las Teresitas plan, which Gestur is working on”.
-Any other plan?
“Another one that can be approved is the urban planning of Santa Cruz Verde 2030, where obviously the Government and the Cabildo have a lot to say in this new city that they want to create in the area of the refinery. And there is an idea that I think the Cabildo should start working on, and that is that it is necessary to create a Tenerife Arena, a modern center with the capacity to adapt to the sporting, cultural, musical, etc. shows that can be held. on the Island, as the Gran Canaria Arena was made. And that center should be located in that future expansion area of Santa Cruz and we make the site available to the Cabildo and the Government.”
-The issue of the Franco Monument is carried over from the previous mandate, what does the City Council want to do with it?
“We have said that there is a law that must be complied with and what we have said to the previous Government is: you have wanted to take a shortcut by focusing on a catalog of Francoist vestiges, which must have been regional, only in one municipality, Santa Cruz of Tenerife. Later, we said that this already motivated the opposition of the City Council and we took it to the courts and they have agreed with us. Furthermore, we have some issues that have to do with the substance of that catalogue, where some things are said that, at the very least, are interpretable or debatable. What we intend is to reach an agreement with the Government of the Canary Islands so that the Law of Historical Memory is applied as the law itself says it must be applied. And the law establishes that certain groups of sculptures, artistic works, etc., can be maintained as long as there is some type of value to protect, artistic, historical, etc. That is a path that can be explored and we will see where it takes us”.
-As for the works in Viera and Clavijo, how are they going? Have you already decided what it will finally house?
“They are starting and the political objective of the City Council regarding what should be housed inside the Viera and Clavijo is that it should be something that adds value to the city, from a cultural point of view and from a tourist point of view. , that is, it generates the attraction of visitors, and I believe that the Rodin Museum contributed that. After what happened, a period now opens where we want to sit down with cultural entities and also with some citizen entities, which allows us to put ideas on the table that can become feasible.”
-And in this mandate, I understand that mobility will have an important role, with low-emission zones, the search and regulation of parking…
“First, it has not been decided, far from it, to charge for parking in the center. What we are is putting all the possibilities on the table. In a parking rearrangement, you can rearrange them charging or not, specific areas may be only for the use of residents, and there there is no charging, but it is being limited. So, what we are asking experts and specialized companies are proposals and gathering information. Furthermore, in certain areas where low-emission areas are going to be implemented and where access to vehicles that pollute will be limited, in our actions we want to give preference to the resident. On the other hand, our intention is, with the instruments that the land law gives us, which are limited, plus the possibility of creating high-rise parking, to be able to try to increase the number of parking spaces. And reach an agreement with the Port Authority to provide certain parking spaces; and with the Ministry of Defense, so that the Almeyda barracks can be used as parking for citizens, maintaining the Military Museum and the services that the Army has there.”
-And other issues related to mobility in the municipality?
“The Council and the Government must be aware that part of the traffic problem in our city has to do with the accesses to Santa Cruz, which are the same as they have been for the last 50 years. With what we have to promote that accessibility to Santa Cruz is much more fluid. And we also have, and this is important, to update the Territorial Road Plan of the Metropolitan Area, which establishes a series of roads that have not been built. Everyone talks about the closure of the island ring, but there can be no ring if it doesn’t close on all sides. And the ring must be closed through the metropolitan area and that means that there must be a direct connection between North and South without using the TF-5. Call it what you want, and I’m not saying that the crop lands should not be respected, that it should be done underground, at an obviously higher cost, but that it should be done.”
