SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 12 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Friday, the Insular Socialist Group announced that it will bring up a query in the upcoming plenary session regarding the “appalling” state of maintenance of the Tenerife Auditorium and the extension of deadlines for architect Santiago Calatrava, the designer of the structure, to draft the refurbishment project.
In a statement, the PSOE points out that under the leadership of Pedro Martín and after several meetings due to conflicting views among different parties, the Governing Council decided in May 2022 to instruct the architect to prepare a project for fixing all hidden defects, estimated by technicians to cost at least 24 million Euros, in addition to the expenses for the refurbishment works and the revenue loss of the Auditorium for at least one year.
At that time, Santiago Calatrava was given a nineteen-month period following the notification of the agreement to carry out the necessary studies and draft the project.
This notification took place in June 2022, giving the architect until January 2024 to submit the project. However, when the change in government happened, a new deadline was set.
Specifically, at the Governing Council meeting held in November 2023, chaired by Rosa Dávila, an additional year from the notification was granted, prolonging the process and further escalating the repair costs due to price increases.
The Socialist Group has shown “surprise” at Rosa Dávila’s statement in the media regarding the matter going to court, given that various technical and political decisions have been made since 2018 and different judicial bodies have issued opinions on the issue.
When Pedro Martín assumed the presidency of the Cabildo, the socialists found the Auditorium entangled in a legal case and in a technically “appalling” state due to the identified hidden defects.
Consequently, the initial actions taken were of a technical nature, limiting activity near the building and setting up monitoring systems for the outer mosaic, known as trencadís.
Following a court request, the parties were instructed to agree on the works to be undertaken in November 2019.
Subsequently, various meetings were convened at the request of the governing group to achieve a unanimous resolution. With no consensus reached, the Governing Council resolved in May 2022 to implement a previous Cabildo agreement from 2018 declaring responsibilities for the hidden defects and obliging Santiago Calatrava to carry out the repairs at his own cost, along with establishing a timeline of actions for him.
Despite his appeal, the judge ruled in favour of the island corporation in September 2022.
However, the new governing group decided in the November 2023 Governing Council meeting to grant Santiago Calatrava a new deadline, ending in early 2025, as highlighted by the socialists.
