Three summers ago, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council eliminated around half of the available parking spaces on Las Teresitas beach. First, when closing the esplanade that was at the foot of the mountain at the end of the sandy area, past the Red Cross post; then, eliminating all the available spaces in the so-called zero lane, the one closest to the arena and the kiosks and leaving them for the exclusive use of municipal vehicles, motorcycles, vehicles for people with reduced mobility and others. Finally, when carrying out works on the main road of San Andrés, it also eliminated part of the parking there. The result has been that since then, going to Las Teresitas on a busy day means encountering a huge traffic jam of several kilometers already from the fishing docks caused by the elimination of an access lane to San Andrés and the enormous difficulty in finding parking, with a single path to explore the beach. A traffic light located in Santa Cruz warns when the beach, or rather its parking lot, is full, which happens frequently, especially in summer, since these measures were taken.
And while the lane closest to the sea still has not recovered its original parking spaces (more than 200), the City Council has allocated more than 300,000 euros to pave the plot on which the so-called mamotreto, one of the vestiges of the largest case of corruption that has affected the City Council of the Tenerife capital and the party that governs it, Canary Coalition. A case in which the former mayor of the city Miguel Zerolo and other politicians and businessmen in the plot ended up in prison although without having returned the stolen money. That illegal mammoth was built to house a parking lot, but the justice system ordered its demolition.
Now, that same City Council announces that it has created “302 new parking spaces” for Las Teresitas and San Andrés, but omits to calculate the spaces that it has previously destroyed, both in the town and on the beach.
Those that have now been announced are 259 free spaces for light vehicles, 29 for motorcycles, seven for vehicles for people with reduced mobility, four modules of six spaces for bicycles and one space for Local Police and Emergencies, details the council chaired by José Manuel Bermudez.
He has pointed out that with the opening of this car park, the City Council “responds to the demand of the people of San Andrés, who have been asking for more space to park for a long time”, a logical demand if the loss of spaces is taken into account. of recent years. Bermúdez has added that the new “parking that can be used both day and night, which is self-sufficient and that will not only help the neighbors, but also the businesses in the area, which will be able to receive more people, which will boost the economy of this area from the city”. That is, the same thing that the places that already existed did.
For his part, the councilor for the Public Services area, Carlos Tarife, assured that the City Council “continues to focus on improving the city’s parking areas to regulate space and make these enclaves where many people gather more accessible and which, without Without a doubt, they represent a tourist attraction, as is the case of Las Teresitas beach. Furthermore, this is a point that could have other uses such as, for example, for events and concerts” since it is a piche esplanade.
The works, which had a budget of more than 357,000 euros, consisted of paving and asphalting the land, installing a lighting and signaling system, as well as providing 35 light points that are powered by solar energy.
The City Council, adds the press release sent this Monday, continues to remodel Dique Street to adapt its current use, intended for traffic and parking, to that of “a free public space that gives priority to pedestrian use, leaving only one lane for the restricted traffic of neighboring vehicles, and loading and unloading.” The new parking lot is located on the other side of the ravine that flows into San Andrés, so to get to the town you have to travel along a walkway built over it.
It is planned to provide the Marítima Avenue parking line with a sidewalk to create a pedestrian zone between these parking lots and the surrounding roads. In addition, this entrance street to the town will be provided with better lighting, he concludes.
