Mogán Town Council, faced with the largest economic challenge of our time and a 97% drop in tourism, have come up with a brilliant new plan to spend more than €2m of taxpayers money in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, with a second urban park, children’s area and sports zone, including bleachers for cultural events, a cafeteria, public toilets, picnic areas and bike lanes. The outlandish new park will take up ​​7,742 square meters of space, close to the main promenade and the beach, an area known as Los Laureles due to the seven large laurel trees that stand there, which they plan to conserve.

 


The obviously much-needed public project, already drawn up at great expense to the public purse, seeks to return activity to the Los Laureles area, which has, over the years, become simply a thoroughfare on the way to the beach. The plan includes an enclosure “totally integrated with nature”, which will showcase the already very visible and much loved Indian laurels, which already provide shade, but will now have designated rest areas, together with the rest of the existing vegetation, around which the newly marked areas will “aim for the integration, inclusion and learning” of the little ones, with organised activities.

The Town hall, who recently slashed public spending for things like employment and education in the popular tourism municipality while also giving themselves a pay rise,  will now invest more than €2 million for an urban park that, as one of its main features, will consist of five ecosystems, each with activities and playgrounds for young children aged 0 to 3, from 3 to 5 years old, and onwards. All these spaces are to be connected and, in order to maintain their existing aesthetics will use so-called “non-invasive materials”, to improve the area around the trees and the natural environment in general.  All of the local birds will now be happy, not angry, by order of the local council!

In one (hotly anticipated) ecosystem there will be a booth that will house the new cafeteria, as well as a public toilet, adapted for people with reduced mobility, around which the picnic areas will be arranged. Boys and girls will be able to carry out long awaited activities like enjoying theatre, dance, music and performances, they will be able to practice other activities related to balance, control and mastery of the body, play soccer on a children’s field and play basketball in one of the two half courts that are being contemplated. Also included in this much anticipated new plan will be an area dedicated to calisthenics and a bike lane around the park perimeter.

The Town Council plan to spend a big chunk of excess money to regenerate spaces like this that have “become obsolete” over time due to the growth and demand from both residents and tourists, in essence this vital project will be a welcome additional themed park for kids who like plants and sports, but don’t want to use the other available parks, or the flagship multimillion euro commercially run theme park, privately operated just round the corner.

Lovely. Well done Mogán, you lucky, lucky lot. Brilliant.   Another exciting urban development project that you never knew you needed.