The Department of Parks and Gardens will organize recreational activities for children in the town square, as an alternative and exceptional solution while the renovation works on the Church Park last.
Councilor Araceli Armas Cruz denounces the “negligent negligence” with which the previous government supported by the PSOE and NC acted in a public service so essential and necessary for the children and their families.
The null and terrible management that the government of the socialist Concepción Narváez developed in the Department of Parks and Gardens of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council during the previous legislature, specifically in its duty to renew and maintain the municipality's playgrounds, has ended up leading to in which the population of El Tablero will be left without a single play area for the little ones in the coming days. To alleviate this deficit, the City Council has already taken measures.
None of the four children's play areas that El Tablero has currently meets the necessary conditions of use to be used with full safety guarantees. The state of deterioration presented by the floor surfaces, the fixed installations and the play elements in general, and even the protective measures, is so serious and of such magnitude that they represent a real danger to the physical integrity of the users. .
To the children's park at the back of Mercadona, abandoned and closed since June 2019; to the complete dismantling of the playground of the Tabaibas-Bandama Urbanization in 2020, and to the necessary closure of the Multifunctional Park last July due to technical safety prescription, is now joined by the Church Park precinct, also in a very poor state of conservation for be able to guarantee moderately safe use. The City Council plans to proceed with its immediate repair as the fastest and most viable resource to once again provide the El Tablero neighborhood with a children's leisure area while the renovation of the rest of the children's facilities is awarded.
The City Council tries to avoid unnecessary and unfortunate personal accidents such as the one that happened on January 21, 2023 to a child who was only 3 years old in the Plaza de Juan Grande playground. A fall due to the use of a broken oar ended up costing him admission to the Maternal and Child Hospital for a fractured left shoulder and other injuries. But it could have been more serious.
Exceptional alternative
However, to overcome this temporary lack of children's spaces in El Tablero and while the cleaning and renovation of the Church park is underway, the file for which began to be processed two months ago and whose works were finally awarded on September 12, The Department of Parks and Gardens has decided to adopt as an alternative measure and on an exceptional basis the daily programming of recreational activities for children in the Plaza. This children's revitalization with workshops and inflatables will be organized from Monday to Friday in the afternoon, and on weekends in the morning and afternoon. This measure will continue while the works are carried out, which will begin at the beginning of next week.
The arrangement of the Multifunctional Park will require much more time. Its closure was decreed on July 1, although it should have been done much earlier. The socialist councilor who directed Parks and Gardens in the previous legislature received a citizen complaint in November 2022 about the poor state of the Park and municipal technicians wrote two reports on its deficiencies, warning that they compromised the safety of users and prescribed its closure. Even so, the Narváez government decided to ignore the complaint and ignore the reports, which were finally accepted by the councilor on June 16, just two days before the current ruling group took office.
The order to proceed with the repair and renovation of the El Tablero Multifunctional Park is also given. Its deficiencies are so many and so far-reaching that they have even required the drafting of a project that involves a geotechnical study to determine the origin and extent of the land subsidence in the area of its sports field. The completion of said study has been set for October 4 by the technician of the company awarded the repair project. The scope of the work necessary to put the Park back into operation with all safety measures will depend on the result of this report. For the Department of Parks and Gardens this is a priority intervention.
A shamelessness
“The carelessness and abandonment with which the previous government supported by the PSOE and NC acted in the Parks and Gardens area was truly regrettable. It is impermissible and shameless that after having completely neglected the parks and gardens of this municipality for four years, they now allow themselves the luxury of criticizing the closure of playgrounds and demanding immediate action,” denounces Araceli Armas.
In May 2019, the PP-AV majority government awarded the renovation of the 27 playgrounds in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, with the contract signed and ready to execute. However, after the elections and the change of government, that contract was never executed and the playgrounds were subjected to absolute and shameful abandonment for the following four years. From the opposition, PP-AV asked the Corporation's plenary session on numerous occasions about the poor state of the parks, especially the El Tablero Multifunctional Park, and begged and demanded their cleanup and renovation, warning of the danger they posed.
Araceli Armas considers that “seriousness and responsibility are a pending issue for many councilors of the PSOE and NC. “It is clear that Parks and Gardens came in very handy for the PSOE councilor who only had that department in charge. It is not possible, because it does not fit into our heads, that with such an obvious and pressing need to act urgently in the parks and with municipal coffers more than healthy to carry it out, that councilor was not capable in the last four years to renovate a single playground in this municipality and that NC did not realize that this was a matter of vital importance and that it did not admit any delay.” That is why Araceli Armas has set the goal of renovating all playgrounds during 2024.
In just three months
Armas Cruz makes it clear that "in less than three months of the new municipal government, the Department of Parks and Gardens has worked - by far - more than in the last four years, because not only have shock actions been carried out in areas such as Meloneras and the slope of the Annex II Parking, but also an intervention has been managed in the South Park that has involved its renovation and the provision of surveillance; The repair of the children's playground of the Church of El Tablero has been put out to tender and awarded; It has been possible to recover a subsidy of 100.000 euros that was on the verge of being lost due to lack of processing and that was intended for the renovation of the children's areas in the medians of the municipality, and another subsidy of 100.000 euros for improvements is also in the bidding process. in Tony Gallardo Park.”
