The Commission has already commissioned the first two studies, from the ULPGC and a specialized technical company, which will serve to consolidate the conclusions of the opinion that will be submitted to the Governing Council at the end of the current evaluation process.
The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castilla, and the Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight Against Climate Change and Territorial Planning, José Antonio Valbuena, have chaired today a new day of the interdepartmental Work Commission to analyze and assess the future uses of the port facilities of Santa Águeda, in the Gran Canaria municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, thus giving continuity to the participatory process with the administrations, the social and business agents involved, opened last June. At the conference held today at the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing, an audience was given to the mayor of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Conchi Narváez, and the Save the Bay of Santa Águeda platform, who expressed their opinion on the future destiny of this port facility.
During the celebration of this new day of the Labor Commission, the studies that have already been commissioned and that will allow the final decision on this port infrastructure to be submitted to the Government Council, a decision that will not be binding and in which The general interest of citizens will always prevail. This commission must prepare an opinion on the future of the port located in Santa Águeda, classified as for industrial use and whose concession is currently held by the cement company CEISA. However, this public domain concession will expire in October 2022 and that is why this concession has been created. Commission, to study possible alternatives for the future of this port that belongs to the regional network of the Puertos Canarios entity, chaired by Councilor Franquis.
This new day of the participatory process held today began with the participation of Mayor Conchi Narváez who defended that the tourist development of the area is compatible with this port facility continuing to retain an industrial use and the cement company CEISA renewing the concession on it.
After listening to the mayor, the councilors summoned to the Work Commission the representatives of the Save the Bay of Santa Águeda Platform, which make up several neighborhood groups in this neighborhood of San Bartolomé, and who also defend that the port of Santa Águeda be used by the cement factory as a priority.
Councilors Franquis and Valbuena and Councilor Castilla thanked the city council and the platform for their participation in this information process in which the Government of the Canary Islands wants to listen to all those affected to have sufficient elements of judgment before making a decision on the matter. . The statements of the mayor and the platform will be added to those of the representatives of the CEISA cement company and the tourism entrepreneurs grouped in the FEHT who were already received in the first days of this participatory process.
On the other hand, during today's work day it was also reported that the preliminary reports that were decided upon when this Interdepartmental Work Commission was formed have already been ordered. In this way, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been commissioned to carry out a complete socio-economic study on the current activity and the proposals proposed for the port of Santa Águeda and a second report to a specialized company to carry out a study. of alternatives from a technical point of view on the different options that exist for this infrastructure.
The Government of the Canary Islands has established this working group to carry out the analysis of the possible options for the new concession and propose the optimal decision based on their greatest public interest. For this reason, the interdepartmental Labor Commission wants to listen to all those affected in the coming months and evaluate all the necessary analyzes that justify the final decision on this port, reasoning that will be based on technical reports endorsed by experts in the matters involved that They are already being ordered.
The three councilors of the Canary Islands Government agreed that the work in this Commission will be carried out "with absolute discretion", with the purpose of listening to and evaluating the different positions expressed by the sectors involved in Santa Águeda from the most absolute neutrality and with the sole and exclusive objective of defending the general interest of Canarian citizens in making final decisions about the future of this port.