The neighbors of the hamlets and towns of the Anaga Rural Park They can’t take it anymore. They feel in no man’s land due to the lack of response to the requests they have been making for more than three years, both at Council like the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and La Lagunawith those they delimit.
They are calling for a mobility plan with guarantees and greater investment in infrastructure in this space, which, for some time now, has become a pilgrimage of cars, caravans and tourist buses to the Cruz del Carmen, which is causing not only endless traffic jams, but also the lack of parking for residents who are mostly elderly and see their safety in danger.
Given the situation of neighborhood despair, the spokesperson for the socialist group in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, Florentino Guzmán, brought a motion to the plenary session on December 22 in defense of a sustainable mobility plan for Anaga, which was rejected by CC and Vox. In it, the PSOE asked to demand from the Cabildo solutions that improve the quality of life of the local community in the face of “the critical levels reached, which are generating discomfort among residents and visitors, especially after the caravan experienced on December 8 that has “has made evident the lack of effective road measures,” he argued.
In this sense, the PSOE proposed creating deterrent parking lots with collective public transport shuttles in locations such as Las Mercedes, Punta del Hidalgo, Tegueste, Residencial Anaga, La Alegría and San Andrés, in addition to improving public transport, in frequencies and routes, and Carry out traffic control.
For his part, the spokesperson for the Roque Negro Neighborhood Association, Iván Rodríguez, explained that “the motion is appreciated, but it does not make sense if all the administrations on which we depend do not get involved and give us a firm commitment, not only patches. For this reason, we have demanded a meeting with the Cabildo and city councils so that everyone sitting at the same table can come up with a definitive solution.”
Rodríguez pointed out that “so far what we see are good intentions but not effective, because what we ask for is more public buses and not buses like they have given us and which are filled with tourists, forcing neighbors to have to wait hours for the next one.” service. If we need to go to the doctor or go shopping, returning is an impossible mission.”
The residents want the services of lines 076 and 077, dependent on the Cabildo, and, in addition, 275 managed by La Laguna, as well as lines 9 financed by Santa Cruz, to be improved. “We want bigger buses and more frequencies so that we are not left stranded without having a seat,” he stressed.
Likewise, they demand improvements in the Cruz del Carmen parking lot, which “is full of potholes and the time limit they have set does not work, as it is filled with caravans that park for days, there is no security and the tourists leave everything dirty, shitting and pissing in the forest and throwing garbage in the area of Las Carboneras or Taborno,” the residents denounce.
In turn, they ask that the Cabildo undertake improvements to the infrastructure, with railings on the roads and not curbs that have not provided a solution. They are not against tourism, but they are against tourism to live safely.
