SBT promotes its energy transition

 

The San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council takes another step toward municipal sustainability. The plenary session of the municipal council unanimously approved this Thursday, during its regular June session, a collaboration agreement with the Gran Canaria Island Energy Council (CIEGC) to develop renewable energy and promote energy communities in the municipality.

 

The purpose of the agreement, as explained by the Councilor for the Presidency, Elena Álamo Vega, is to install solar panels on canopies, energy storage batteries, and electric vehicle charging stations (ERVE) in public parking areas. The premises are to implement sustainable mobility, reduce external energy dependence, achieve energy self-consumption in municipal facilities, create and develop energy communities, and promote neighborhood involvement in the transition toward "a cleaner, more efficient, and fairer energy model," she said.

 

The City Council-CIEGC agreement provides for the installation of 4.824 modules, which will occupy a total photovoltaic surface area of ​​11.723,2 square meters, in the parking lots located on the following avenues: Granada, Gran Canaria, España, Plaza Miramar, Holand Internacional (CC Faro II), Las Pitas (San Agustín), the Maspalomas Health Center, and in the plazas of Timanfaya, Puerto del Rosario, and Yaiza, in the town of San Fernando de Maspalomas. A total nominal power output of 2.537,5 kilowatts will be achieved.

 

Elena Álamo explained that the CIEGC will cover all costs of the photovoltaic installations, as well as their maintenance, image, and technical operation. It will also provide 15% of the nominal power of each of the municipal areas ceded for energy self-consumption by the City Council and its facilities. These cessions are established for a period of 25 years, estimated as the useful life of the facilities.

 

The storage batteries will be located in the Las Pitas parking lots, the Maspalomas Health Center, Timanfaya Plaza-San Fernando Municipal Offices, Puerto del Rosario Plaza, and Yaiza Plaza. They will occupy a total area of ​​266,5 square meters and have a capacity of 3.256,3 kilowatts.

 

Regarding electric vehicle charging stations, the agreement establishes eight new stations with a total of 8 units and a total charging capacity of 20 kW in the parking lots located on the avenues of Granada, Gran Canaria, España, Faro II, Finnair, and Miramar, near the Ayacata medical clinic, and next to the Cercados de Espino football field.

 

“This agreement, at zero cost to the municipal coffers, has an objective aligned with Europe: to promote the energy transition in the municipality and reduce our CO40 emissions by 2% by 20230, which was one of the commitments our City Council made when joining the Covenant of Mayors in 2018. The social return on this agreement is complete, because the entire investment will be borne by the CIEGC (City of Municipalities), and in return, our City Council will receive 15% of the installed capacity free of charge, which will be used for self-consumption by buildings and public services, significantly reducing our electricity bills. Furthermore, inter-administrative collaboration will allow us to create energy communities that can share these renewable surpluses,” insisted Elena Álamo.

 

 

Prices for sunbeds and umbrellas

 

Without the support of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), the Plenary Session also approved in this session a modification to the ordinance regulating the price of the public service of sun loungers and umbrellas on the municipality's beaches in order to update their provision and maintenance costs. The last revision was made on April 1, 2002, 23 years ago. The proposal was defended before the plenary session by First Deputy Mayor Alejandro Marichal. "After 23 years without implementing any increase, and taking into account that the Canary Islands municipalities have much higher prices than those proposed here, to say that this price revision is not appropriate is completely illogical, and even more so if the public treasury is so strongly defended," he stated. For his part, Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez added that "during all this time, personnel costs have risen significantly, and the price revision is intended to offset these salary increases."

 

The amendment to Article 3 will increase the price of sun loungers and parasols from €2 to €2,5, and will also introduce new service offerings such as Balinese beds at €4,5, and Reisen model safes, measuring 15 cm high by 15,24 cm wide, at €23,6 per day.

 

Furthermore, the change to Article 4 will allow payments for this service, which are currently made in cash directly to the collectors, to be made through data phones.

 

This plenary agreement on the ordinance amendments is only initial. It will now be subject to public comment for a period of 30 days so that residents can make any suggestions or complaints they deem appropriate, and then it will be submitted to a new plenary session of the Corporation for final approval.

 

 

Hotel Las Tirajanas

 

On the other hand, the full Corporation also unanimously agreed to initiate the necessary administrative procedure to terminate the administrative concession contract for the Parador-Restaurant 'Monte Pobre', known as Hotel Las Tirajanas.

 

The establishment has been closed for almost five years. Furthermore, the company that took over the concession for a 1998-year period in September 49, paying the City Council a monthly fee of 500.000 pesetas, Mar Abierto SA, has been in a complicated bankruptcy case since October 2021, being processed by the Commercial Court No. 1 of Las Palmas.

 

The City Council considers that the opening of the bankruptcy proceedings ordered by the court on May 31, 2024, with the dissolution of the company and the dismissal of its directors, is sufficient reason to proceed with the termination of the contract without having to pay any compensation, given that the contract's terms and conditions include this specific reason as one of the causes that would lead to its liquidation, stated Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez. "We are executing and applying the mandate of the letter of the contract that was signed at the time," he said.

 

First Deputy Mayor Alejandro Marichal defended the restoration of the hotel "to put it back into operation, because it is strategic for revitalizing Tunte and the surrounding areas of the municipality." He also warned, in response to NC, that "it is possible that the bankruptcy administrator will decide to award it to another concessionaire."

 

Sector 20-A of El Hornillo

 

Another matter agreed upon by the plenary session was the rejection of the 20 objections submitted during the public information process for the urban development initiative for sector 20-A of El Hornillo, and to leave the final approval of the urban management instruments and the reparcelling, equidistribution and urbanisation projects for sector 3C2/3-A, a land area of ​​approximately 160.000 m² between the GC-1 Motorway, Sonnenland and the Las Tabaqueras Ravine, in the hands of the Governing Board.

 

Alejandro Marichal explained that the project includes the construction of 319 homes, 96 of them social housing, a commercial park of almost 9.300 m², and two educational centers for preschool and primary education. It also includes approximately 21.242 m² of open spaces and green areas, as well as plots for social and sports use, measuring 956 and 318 square meters, respectively.

 

Advertising promotion 

 

Also unanimously approved was the initial introduction of an additional provision to the municipal ordinance regulating advertising promotion in the municipality's streets. Given its restrictive nature, the objective is to expand authorizations to small and medium-sized businesses and ensure effective compliance with the regulations. In any case, permits are subject to an administrative agreement with the general requirements and the specific specification of the spaces to be granted, the number of counters and their characteristics, and the number of duly identified advertising agents who will operate them. This measure also expands the range of advertising activities. 

 

Churches of San Fernando and Ayagaures

 

A budget amendment was also unanimously approved at this plenary session to allocate €90.000 to the repair of the roofs of the churches of San Fernando de Maspalomas and 'Niño Dios' in Ayagaures. €30.000 will be allocated to the "urgent and necessary" repair of the dome of the former "to guarantee the integrity of the building and preserve its public function," while €60.000 will be allocated to the latter, which belongs to the parent parish of Santísima Trinidad de El Tablero. This increased amount will be used to replace and remove its asbestos-laced aluminum roof, classified as a public health hazard, and to remodel the parish house to allow its preservation and adaptation to public and social uses by the residents.

 

Solving homelessness

 

In the motions section, the plenary session unanimously approved a proposal by NC to address the problem of homelessness in this municipality. After reaching a consensus with the proponent on the elimination or withdrawal of the economic terms of the motion and reaching out to the involvement of all political groups in the search for solutions, the first deputy mayor, Alejandro Marichal, defended the need to "start from the ground up and first conduct a census and real diagnosis" that would assess the number of people experiencing homelessness and their personal circumstances., from there, work together with the Social Services team in the development of a Municipal Plan for the Rehabilitation of Homelessness.

 

Marichal, who also invited the proponent to remove the motion's proposal to relocate homeless people to vacant tourist accommodation, advocated for the signing of a collaboration agreement with the Social Work Department to complement the work of the Social Services department in caring for these individuals, and urged the Corporation's political spokespersons to hold biweekly meetings to ensure coordinated management. "This is a key issue that cannot be trivialized. I extend my hand to all parties to work and reach agreements to resolve this situation," he stated, also making it clear that "homelessness in the municipality did not begin or appear with this government, but is an unfortunately historical problem to which we must respond as consensually as possible with the collaboration of all administrations." 

 

The amended motion was accepted by the spokesperson for Nueva Canarias, Samuel Henríquez Quintana, and supported by the other members of the government led by Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez, as well as by the councilors of the Socialist group. Although their spokesperson stated before the debate that they would support the motion, at the end of it, they told the CC spokesperson that they didn't buy his message. "These are empty and hollow words meant to look good. What we need to do is reactivate the Cahipso space and services," Concepción Narváez stated.