Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the pioneer municipalities in the Canary Islands as far as participatory budgeting is concerned. It was in 2017 when he launched the first edition of this formula that allows residents to propose and decide directly on works to be carried out in their immediate surroundings.
Since then, including the last edition, which is still underway, there are almost 130 projects that have been carried out in the city and decided by the residents. In that first edition, under the slogan Santa Cruz tailored to you, Participate!, 250,000 euros were allocated, 50,000 per district, in which 164 people participated, with a total of 1,156 votes. Then 35 construction projects were selected that were fully executed.
The next edition, the one corresponding to 2018-2019, had 500,000 euros, 100,000 per district, and achieved a participation of 325 people, with a total of 2,583 votes counted. The motto Will you help us improve your environment? It was used to select 45 projects, of which all but one were executed, the placement of railings on the stairs of the Serrador bridge, which was declared unfeasible as it is an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) that does not admit modifications.
In 2020-2021, the participatory budget rose to 1,000,000 euros, breaking down 200,000 per district, which obtained a total of 1,428 participants and 4,592 votes cast. The selected projects totaled 50, of which 14 have already been executed, five have been awarded, one is under development and six more are under study. Some, such as shading Castillo street, are still awaiting the report from the Cabildo.
Yesterday, the Santa Cruz City Council brought together 130 municipal entities in the first meeting of Santa Cruz Participa, in which the new regulation for citizen participation was presented, the balance of previous editions of the participatory budgets and the new call for proposals up to 1.6 million.
As detailed yesterday to neighborhood entities, the new actions will have a maximum budget of 80,000 euros per project, which will be 15,000 in the case of services. They must refer to a specific location or locations (a street or several but delimited ones, a square, etc…) and in any case circumscribed to a single district. As for the duration, this will not exceed the two years covered by this call (2023-2024).
The meeting also served to present the new regulations for Citizen Participation, which, as the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, pointed out, “the field of Citizen Participation has changed and we need new tools to make it more effective and representative, so We have placed emphasis on a new Regulation that allows new formulas for the more direct involvement of citizens to be opened” and added that “in this line, the Participatory Budgets suppose a direct intervention in what is done in the municipality and in the things that demand the neighbors directly.
