PSOE Urges Tenerife’s Cabildo to Hold Calatrava Accountable for Auditorium Repairs

The head of the Socialist Group in the Tenerife Cabildo, Pedro Martín, has urged the corporation’s president, Rosa Dávila (Coalición Canaria), this Monday to “protect the interests of Tenerife and finally demand that the architect Santiago Calatrava take responsibility” for the significant damage sustained by the Auditorium, which will cost several million euros due to “the concealed faults in the building,” according to the PSOE.

Martín elaborated that “the Cabildo has granted Mr. Calatrava a year’s grace period to finally state that he will not oversee the repairs and will not bear the cost of rectifying the faults, estimated at over 24 million euros.” He questioned, “What does this agreement bring to the public interest of Tenerife?”

The Auditorium of Tenerife holds significant importance on the Island, yet it has been contentious since its inception, with the final construction costs soaring to triple the original estimate of 26.7 million euros. In total, 74 million euros were spent from public funds, alongside considerable damages reported due to flaws in its design and construction. All of this transpired under the administration of the Canarian Coalition in the Tenerife Council, as stated by the PSOE.

After years of “inactivity”, in May 2022, the government group led by Martín himself agreed in the Government Council to insist that the Valencian architect create a repair plan, alongside covering the associated costs. He was given a timeline of 19 months to present the document, which was required to be ready for the Cabildo of Tenerife by January 2024.

Calatrava appealed this decision in court, “a case he lost,” according to the PSOE.

Nevertheless, with no justification for such a decision, the current government group (CC and PP, with external backing from Vox) opted in November 2023 to provide Santiago Calatrava a new timeframe to draft the repair plan.

Furthermore, as the Council has acknowledged, it will be the entity that, using public funds, takes on the costs of professional management and the repairs in a subsidiary manner, which presents a new hurdle to ensuring that, eventually, the private party is accountable for these repairs. This, in addition to the fact that the project has been submitted late, a situation the corporation attributes to the DANA experienced in Valencia. Despite Santiago Calatrava being from Valencia, his architectural practices are based in Zurich, New York, and Dubai.

It is essential to remember that the latest estimate for the cost of repairs was conducted in 2022, in a technical report issued in May, which calculated the direct and indirect expenses of the repairs to be 24 million euros.

Pedro Martín has insisted that Rosa Dávila “cease enabling the architect to take advantage of Tenerife’s society and demand that he acknowledges his responsibilities for a key project for the Island, which incurred substantial financial costs yet continues to suffer unreasonable damages that, in principle, should be covered by the Cabildo of Tenerife, rather than those responsible for them.”

The general secretary of the PSOE has reminded Dávila that, despite the resolve of the socialist government, she has continually provided Calatrava with every possible facility without insisting on the corresponding responsibilities.

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