The President of the Canary Islands Government, Fernando Clavijo , yesterday spoke of a “smart future commitment” from the Mogán Townhall, in Arguineguín, as the construction of a public car park was begun that will provide 486 extra parking spaces for the area, and a covered public square with services for young people and the educational community. While laying the first stone, a ceremony attended by municipal and business representatives of the town, along with numerous residents, the regional chief also highlighted the role of the Canary Islands Development Fund (Fdcan), which has financed 90% of the infrastructure, as part of the economic progress and the cohesion of the Canarian archipelago. “It is very difficult to say no to the mayor of Mogán.” said the President, when referring to La Alcaldesa, Onalia Bueno.
This seven million euro investment, is the only one of its kind that has been made in the history of the municipality of Mogán with funding from the Government of the Canary Islands, through a direct subsidy to the Town Municipal Council. “Mogán” he said “has perfectly understood Fdcan’s philosophy, which is to offer competitiveness to the municipalities and the islands, and not [just] make a purely numerical distribution [simply calculated] by number of citizens, because if this town had [otherwise] aspired to infrastructure at this level, they would have had to resort to privatization of the service and manage it via administrative concession, not having the economic capacity [themselves].”
For Fernando Clavijo, the laying of the first stone of this future car park means “starting to crystallise realities, new projects where there is no smoke or [ulterior] intentions, but work that is directly affecting lives of the residents of the municipality.” The regional president of the government also praised the Council’s commitment to public project management of the park because “it will generate employment and a lot of activity that will benefit the entrepreneurs of the environment.”
Mayoress of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, beamed as she and the president laid the first ceremonial block, in the form of a glass time capsule commemorating the day.
Note:
No mention whatsoever was made of the closed GC500 coastal road, which has been blocked to traffic since landslides forced the authorities to restrict all access leaving the tourist enclave of Taurito cut off from the west, with the only access being via motorway and an 20km detour via Puerto Rico to the east.Many residents have asked why a new car park might be more important than reopening an important and popular road shut for more than a year… and indeed why the new car park was needed at all…
The construction of the Arguineguín car park building, has an estimated works execution time of 24 months, and consists of a two-storey car park in the basement with a capacity of 486 spaces, and a public plaza on the roof. The work was awarded for an amount of 6,969,907.98 euros, financed by the grant obtained by the Government of the Canary Islands and with the resources of the Municipality of Mogán.
Once the work is completed, the City Council will assume direct management of the parking building, as approved in the plenary session of November 30, 2017. This plenary agreement included several technical reports related to the economic sustainability of the operation .
The Municipality of Mogán is obliged to guarantee the stability and financial sustainability of the project as set out in articles 3 and 4 of the Organic Law 2/2012, of April 27, on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability. In order to meet these requirements, an economic study has been carried out that includes the forecast of income and expenses necessary to operate the service.
Among the expenses will be personnel necessary to maintain the operation of the service 24 hours a day; insurance necessary to cover the responsibilities derived from the operation; the maintenance and conservation of machinery, elevators, fire protection system, smoke detection and extraction system and the rest of the underground building’s facilities; the consumption and supplies of water, electricity, telephones, ticketing, office and cleaning supplies; forecasts for other minor expenses, incidentals and taxes; depreciation of fixed assets, determining the residual value of the parking after 25 years of activity.
To meet these expenses, once the work is completed and as soon as possible the new parking service will establish rates, which will include special discounts for residents and other groups, and which will include the first 90 minutes of parking for free.
The surface of the projected public square will measure more than 8,320 square meters approximately and will include a 500 square meter multi-use building, a refreshment kiosk, a playground for children and an adults area, with spaces dedicated to sports including sports fields, spaces for perform exercises with “biosaludables” machines, shaded areas, vegetation zones and recreational areas. Among other services and infrastructures that may also be located in the area, a future library is planned.
