Arona Set to Tender for Public Garden Maintenance
The Arona Town Council has finalised the terms for tendering the maintenance of public gardens. The full council rescinded the agreement made on 31 July, corrected the document, and approved it definitively. This was passed with the backing of the municipal government (PP-CC-Vox) and Nueva Canarias, while Más por Arona opposed it and the PSOE abstained. The contract’s budget is nearly €28.6 million to be paid over five years. “This is the most significant news in recent years for the municipality,” declared Mayor Fátima Lemes as she concluded the debate during yesterday’s ordinary council meeting.
A Correction
The agreement rectifies the decision made by the council over a month ago. On 28 August, a municipal technical report recommended «reverting» the file due to deficiencies in the administrative clauses that affected the tender budget and the estimated contract value. It did not account for the amount agreed upon by the workers and the current service provider. This was pointed out by the external consultant whom the local government (PP-CC-Vox) hired to assess the terms, as reiterated by Socialist spokesman José Julián Mena.
“This file cannot wait a second longer.”
The delay in a file concerning a service that “cannot afford to wait a second longer,” as acknowledged by the Councillor for the Environment, Clara María Pérez, was attributed to “human error”. Nonetheless, it led to two appeals from the sector’s employers and a union. Both sets of terms received favourable reports from the Intervention, Secretariat, and the technical staff of the Environment Department, Pérez stated during the council meeting.
An External Report
José Julián Mena, the PSOE spokesman, reproached the councillor for paying “with public funds” for a document whose content was disregarded in the initial terms. He argued that the matter has come forward “late, poorly, and reluctantly” and expressed that these developments foster a “loss of trust” among the Socialists, who had voted in favour on 31 July but abstained yesterday.
In light of the ongoing disagreements between the two councillors, the spokesperson for Más por Arona, Pura Martín, merely reminded the council that they had requested to table the matter a month ago and pointed out that the terms approved yesterday “do not improve either working conditions or the service.”
