Óscar Izquierdo, president of the construction association of the province of Tenerife (Fepeco), assures that the Island has “the capacity to lead with Gran Canaria the development of the Archipelago.”
As a representative of the construction employers’ association, he has complained a lot that the large projects he needs Tenerife They don’t start. Why do you think it happened?
A sterile debate was established on the Island that has only served to waste time and paralyze Tenerife. We must make a change, stop debating public works and take action. We must reach consensus, be aware that all parties have to give in, to move forward because there are many open fronts.
What would you ask of the groups that have not reached agreements?
That there be unity, that a common front be created where all the agents involved, political, social and economic, participate, but that all parties are clear that we must move forward. We must all be smart for once because Tenerife has the means and capacity to lead, together with Gran Canaria, the development of Canary Islands. No more opportunities can be lost with immovable positions. We all have to give in to some postulates for the well-being and prosperity of the people of Tenerife. We must abandon paralyzing debates, unite and get to work.
You always give Gran Canaria as an example, which you believe has known how to make progress in addressing major needs.
Tenerife has enormous potential to lead the advance of the Canary Islands together with Gran Canaria. We have to put aside confrontations and go hand in hand but at the same speed. We must make up for lost time, rise to the occasion and start from the basis that we have to agree on many matters to move forward.
Who do you think should lead this paradigm shift?
The Cabildo, as an island government, has to lead the consensus. The new president, Rosa Davila, has to play that role. And it will have the support of Fepeco.
Do you agree with the measures that you have proposed as soon as you begin your stage to improve mobility on the Island?
At Fepeco we agree with these measures and give our absolute support. It seems that the Cabildo is serious and things are beginning to be done well. These measures are laying the foundations for the beginning of the end of traffic jams.
Why do you think this situation of congestion has been reached on the main roads of the Island?
Unlike what has happened on other Islands, in Tenerife it has taken a long time to implement the major actions contemplated, for example, in the road agreement with the State. Here these great projects do not go ahead because of that endless debate I was talking about between politicians and social agents. Using a football simile, everyone wants to be a coach but no one makes decisions. And that’s not how you move forward. The problem is simple: the road network cannot absorb the number of vehicles and the means of public transportation are not sufficient to compensate for this pressing deficit.
Some groups criticize that they only bet on the piche.
It is not necessary to fill everything with asphalt to carry out the great works that the Island needs. It has never been our intention. Tenerife has to unite to carry out improvements in highways and roads, in public transport… Reinforce bus and tram lines. But what has happened is that this lack of consensus on major issues has turned Tenerife – and the data clearly states this – into the island with the least execution of public works. The planning takes forever and the executions do not come out. Let it be clear that builders want action to take place within a framework of maximum legal certainty and respect for sustainability. If there are queues in Tenerife it is because there is a lack of improvements on the roads, because there is a lack of public works. What we ask is that the essential works be carried out, those necessary to put an end to these problems that affect a public service: mobility. Many of these actions are already planned but do not start. The citizens They are not to blame for this problem, they are the ones who suffer from it. The culprits are the politicians, regardless of their party, who have not lived up to the tremendous demands that Tenerife has.
What specific works are you referring to?
For example, the third lanes of the two highways, the North and the South, for buses and other high-occupancy vehicles. We are talking about the La Laguna variant, the closure of the Island Ring, the trains from the North and the South or the tram reaching the Los Rodeos airport. In well-organized cities, public transport is connected to important infrastructure such as airports. It has to happen here too. Gran Canaria, in this regard, has done things well. Their political leaders must be congratulated because they have carried out what they have planned, simply what the Island needed. That is what we have been missing in Tenerife.
I was talking before about public transportation. What is the key to strengthening it as a solution to road congestion?
Public transport has to be attractive to citizens. It has to be accessible, affordable, punctual and offer good connections to users.
What other measures do you propose?
Decentralize large infrastructures to prevent them all from being in the Metropolitan Area. For example, that the health centers in the North and South are true hospitals that offer all services. In this way, we would remove thousands of vehicles from the highways. They are people from all over the Island who have to travel to Santa Cruz or La Laguna to receive complete medical care. This measure would have a great impact on Tenerife as it is an island with a more dispersed population than, for example, Gran Canaria, where most of the population is concentrated in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Telde. In Tenerife, the population is more distributed and that is why this measure would be very effective. I’m talking about hospitals or administrations. Opening headquarters and delegations outside the Metropolitan Area would avoid unnecessary travel.
The Cabildo has demanded that an energy emergency be declared on the Island due to the risk of new blackouts. What do you think?
There, too, Gran Canaria is ahead, with the Salto de Chira reversible pumping hydroelectric plant project, whose works have begun to be carried out. The Tenerife project for a similar plant in the Güímar ravines is very late when it should be a priority. However, in addition to the fact that this action is late, we face the danger of new blackouts due to obsolete electrical infrastructure.
And then there is another emergency, that of housing…
It is a constitutional right, let us not forget, but a real problem in the Islands. It is caused, in part, by the great delay in granting licenses for major works. There are so many delays and obstacles that it is impossible to move forward. The administrations prevent us from working because getting a license is very complicated. It can take more than 20 months, when the law requires that it be granted in three months. There are exceptions, such as the Adeje City Council, which complies with the times and forms. In search of legal certainty, an administrative tangle has been created that does the opposite: it creates legal uncertainty. The main consequence? This administrative tangle scares away investors, who prefer to go to other places like Morocco or the Spanish Levant.
