Yesterday, the plenary session of the Arona City Council approved the budget for 2024 with the favorable votes of the Government Group (PP, CC and MxA) and the rejection of the PSOE and the mixed group (Vox and Nueva Canary Islands). The accounts increase by 11% and reach 119.7 million euros, which translates into an increase of 12.6 million compared to the 2020 financial year. This budget, the largest in the history of Arona, “It has been achieved without increasing the fiscal pressure of the neighbors,” according to the mayor, Fátima Lemes (PP), which “complies with the agreement” of the tripartite Mandate Plan for the period 2024-2027, formed by PP, CC and More by Arona.
These budgets are “priority”, according to Fátima Lemes, “given that Arona has been suffering in the last three years from the paralysis and retraction of its economic and administrative management, derived from the extension of the budgets three years in a row.” The 2024 budget is the first of the new 2023-2027 mandate and “it lays the bases and lines of action of the municipal government, in order to achieve the goals set for the next four years,” Lemes explained.
The mayor also highlighted that “with this great achievement we take the first step to achieve the following objectives in the municipality and to be able to realize all the challenges that we have set for ourselves, which will surely be the ones that mark the direction of growth and development.” model that we want from Arona. And she added: «We are happy and proud of the work done, because, although they are not the desired budgets, they allow us to focus on the work that remains to be done and lay the foundations so that the rest of the projects and needs are covered as soon as possible.
The Arona Mandate Plan 2023-2027, signed by PP, CC and Más por Arona, is made up of four Axes: Citizenship (An Arona to live), Territory (For a Sustainable Arona), Economic Promotion (For an Arona to enjoy , invest and work) and Municipal Management (For an efficient, accessible and innovative City Council). Of the first, the accounts reflect the actions planned by the Board of Social Services, which is enhanced with an increase in its budget of 25%. “The set of services and actions aimed at promoting social well-being and combating social inequalities are reinforced those we currently face,” said Lemes.
In this section we must also highlight the actions that the Sports and Culture boards will undertake. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the subsidy program that the Sports Board has, as well as the improvements and creation of new sports infrastructures that are foreseen in these new accounts. As for the Board of Culture, an allocation has been made available for the drafting of a project for the Los Cristianos Multifunctional Arts Center.
Regarding the axis of the Territory, special attention is paid to the Government Group’s commitment to complete the development of municipal urban planning with the drafting of the General Planning Plan, as well as the commitment to implement a sanitation and water treatment plan. It also highlights an “ambitious” Neighborhood Plan 2023-2027, in which numerous improvement actions will be carried out in key locations in the different neighborhoods of Arona.
The third axis of Economic Promotion aims to focus and energize both the tourism sector and trade and business development and the primary sector. For this reason, this new budget includes different subsidies intended for the revitalization and creation of activities in commercial areas, as well as the support and promotion of the primary sector.
Finally, the Municipal Management axis lays the foundations to develop the previous three. Next year’s budget is committed to strengthening the administrative and management machinery such as «engine of change”, according to Fátima Lemes. The accounts provide for the regularization and increase of key positions for the correct functioning of this administration in order to meet the rest of the objectives.
“It is very important to emphasize that Arona has been without a budget for three years, which has been a brake on growth, a brake on administrative development and has led to a situation of absolute paralysis,” said the mayor, who also pointed out that “the approval of the budget “It is the first step, the first major commitment that this Government fulfills in just five months.” “This is a budget that has been worked on since the beginning, which joins other great challenges that we have ahead of us, which we will present in the short term,” he concluded.
The brilliance of Christmas already shines in the main squares and public roads of Arona. On Wednesday, several political officials from the City Council activated the power button for the 1,650 Christmas decorations that will illuminate 28 towns and aronero enclaves during these holidays. Among these decorations, four large Christmas tree structures stand out in Las Galletas and El Fraile, a set of three five-meter Three Wise Men on the Los Cristianos promenade and a 150-meter-long vault on Central Street in Las Galletas. . | ED
