Pájara councillor Alexis Alonso expects La Pared works to finish in January after years of residents’ demands and court rulings

Residents of the La Pared development are seeing progress on the works after years of community demands, backed by a 2014 court ruling requiring Pájara Town Council to provide basic services including street lighting, cleaning, water supply, sewage and paving.

After years of inaction, residents returned to court in 2022 to report that the ruling had not been complied with. Work to renovate the entire area finally began during the previous council term.

The works, with an initial budget of just over one million euros, were halted because of shortcomings in the project and problems with project management, Alexis Alonso said.

This led to a further revision of the project, raising the investment to €5.2 million, and the works had to be put out to tender again.

Footpaths, kerbs, street lighting and utility networks are now being renewed. “We expect them to be completed at the beginning of the year, in January,” Alonso said, referring to the work under way.

Once the work is complete, the council’s intervention will be complemented by an expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, budgeted at €800,000 and needed to unblock housing permits, and the central boulevard, with an estimated investment of €1.2 million. The plans include children’s play equipment and exercise facilities.

The councillor for Urban Planning also revealed that the council is working with the Fuerteventura Island Council to improve access to the area.

La Pared as an example

“La Pared is a clear example of what we want to do across the rest of the municipality,” Alonso said.

He noted that the council has traditionally taken over developments following a court ruling, with the exception of Esquinzo. “It is the first in Pájara’s history where there has been no prior court ruling,” the councillor stressed, saying he favours negotiations with developers to avoid situations dragging on.

Now that the handover has been formalised, the next step is to draw up a renovation project. The procurement processes for this and for Cañada del Río were challenged, requiring the documents to be amended and the works put out to tender again, he explained.

The aim in Cañada del Río is to address the development as a whole, including Bahía Calma and Los Albertos.

In El Granillo, the developer is completing the roads, street lighting and utilities, including a wastewater treatment plant and a desalination plant, so they can be handed over to the Town Council in suitable condition. If work progresses as planned, Pájara’s councillor for Urban Planning expects the handover to be formalised in 2027.

Alonso stressed that requiring all services to comply with current regulations before handover had made it difficult to take over the developments. He said it had been necessary to approve Modification B of the General Plan, adopted at the end of 2023, to allow the developments to be taken over in their current state and improved afterwards.

Costa Calma

Alonso said this week that the council’s road-surfacing programme, worth more than two million euros, had begun, with most of the work concentrated in Costa Calma.

He also highlighted increased cleaning resources in the area, including staff and machinery, work in green spaces and the purchase of 60 inspection chambers. Costa Calma is one of the main areas in the governing agenda backed by PSOE and AM-CC in Pájara, yet it has also seen some of the highest levels of residents’ complaints in recent years.

Among the planned projects is a sports centre with padel courts and gym areas. Its budget is estimated at seven million euros, compared with the five million initially envisaged. The Town Council is finalising the project in an effort to put it out to tender at the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

On cleaning, Alonso pointed to additional staff and mechanical equipment, including pressure washers and street sweepers, as well as work in green spaces and the purchase of 60 inspection chambers to replace damaged ones. He also mentioned the day centre being promoted by the Fuerteventura Island Council.

On healthcare, he called for 24-hour care in Costa Calma. To move towards that goal, he argued, the local surgery should first be upgraded to a health centre and the health cards of residents currently registered in other municipalities should be counted under Pájara. “That will strengthen our case for 24-hour care,” he said.

Water supply and ownership of water infrastructure are other outstanding issues.

Alonso argued that the handover of developments should include their networks and facilities. He questioned the presence of privately owned facilities on land designated for green spaces and called for the service to remain public. “Water has to be public, that’s absolutely clear to us.”

He also criticised the differences in rates, with some residents paying around €2.40 per cubic metre and others close to five euros. He said the municipal technical office had contacted the developer “for the second time” and had also approached Manuel Domínguez, the Canary Islands Government’s Minister for the Economy, to seek a single rate. According to Alonso, the Canary Islands Government requested additional documents, which the council is sending.

Finally, Alonso said the work forms part of a plan for the whole municipality that extends beyond the current council term.

“We have works and projects, which is what matters for the whole of the next council term. In other words, we have more than €100 million in works and projects,” he concluded.