Alejandro Marichal: “The specialization of Uses is the tool that could allow the Government of the Canary Islands to suspend the sanctioning proceedings that have been initiated today”
The deputy of the Parliament of the Canary Islands is committed to promoting parliamentary initiatives that favor public housing and the improvement of Social Services and the Elderly in the municipality
The first deputy mayor of the city council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Alejandro Marichal, has conveyed to the member of the Parliament of the Government of the Canary Islands, Vidina Espino, the need to modify Law 7/1995 on the Regulation of Tourism in the Canary Islands given that “it does not "It addresses the tourism problems that the municipality faces, such as the social and economic environmental sustainability of Tourism, as well as more controversial aspects such as residential use on tourist land and the principle of unit of exploitation."
Marichal, along with part of the Canarian Coalition government team, explained after the meeting held with the Canarian Coalition deputy that during the first seven months of the municipal government, various meetings have been held with the Platform of People Affected by the Tourism Law, after which , transferred to the Department of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands the problems that tourist municipalities have, especially in relation to the disciplinary proceedings against people who reside in the tourist area. After these meetings, the first deputy mayor details, an agreement has been reached so that the City Councils proceed to the specialization of the Use of the plots and thus the sanctioning files are paralyzed. To do this, Marichal continued, it is necessary to modify the General Planning Plan and allow Mixed Use to fit into the tourist area, that is, residential and tourist use. “This modification, which we will begin in the coming months, is the tool that could allow the Government of the Canary Islands to suspend the sanctioning proceedings that have been initiated today. "That is the strategy that we have set with the Government of the Canary Islands."
This modification will be carried out through the legal figure called Provisional Ordinances. To reach this point, Marichal argued, a report was first commissioned from the drafter of the current General Plan in which it was concluded that there is no specialization of Uses of the plots in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, which requires carrying out the modification of the PGOU and determine exactly what the uses are on each of the plots. “This conclusion and solution is what has allowed us to request the Tourism Minister to suspend the sanctioning files while the necessary modifications are processed to specialize the Uses.”
On the other hand, Marichal and Espino addressed the Housing situation in the municipality, highlighting the importance of people “being able to reside close to their work in favor of mobility,” Marichal highlighted. The parliamentarian from the Canarian Coalition pointed out that during the last legislature a Housing Plan was created that has been “ineffective, that has not responded to the problem”, for this reason “the Government of the Canary Islands is working on a decree to facilitate the public housing supply in the different municipalities of the Islands and San Bartolomé de Tirajana is one of those municipalities that has a large number of people who work here and who need to have their residence here and are going to work on different projects that we have contemplated in The meeting today".
Finally, a large part of the meeting was dedicated to talking about Social Services and the Elderly, where Marichal raised the need for there to be an Early Care Law, especially for children with special needs. The first deputy mayor pointed out that this was a service that was in place in the municipality twelve years ago and that has disappeared, so he asked the Government of the Canary Islands for collaboration in its implementation as well as Parliament to promote this law that "It will allow us to serve all the children who today do not have that service." Espino recalled that in 2019 a Law was approved in the Parliament of the Canary Islands for the Government of the Canary Islands to assume the cost of Early Care but “the services and units that have been opened so far in Gran Canaria are insufficient.” For this reason, he continued, “the Government is working together with the Canary Islands Early Care Platform (Patdi) to be able to reach and care for all these children. It can be done in several ways, through the public service, collaborating entities and even as San Bartolomé de Tirajana proposes, from the town councils themselves.”
Finally, regarding the Service to the Elderly, the parliamentarian explained that it is a responsibility of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria and that given the “inefficiency and neglect” of the island Administration, she assumes the proposal made by San Bartolomé de Tirajana to serve the elderly population. , “both those from the municipality and those who are coming from Europe to live here and who are focusing on tourist municipalities”, this is also aging, he explained. For this reason, he accepted the proposal made by the southern council to have more day centers as well as more centers for the care of our elderly," Espino concluded.
