La Orotava Town Hall has invested over 500,000 euros in a hundred actions to eliminate architectural barriers in the urban area and neighbourhoods. The works have prioritised schools, health centres, and tourist areas.
La Orotava Town Hall, through the Department of Municipal Services and Accessibility, has allocated over 500,000 euros throughout the current term to improve accessibility in the municipality. The actions, presented this Monday by Mayor Francisco Linares and Councillor Yurena Luis, have focused on squares, pavements, schools, health centres, and streets in both the urban centre and various neighbourhoods.
The mayor apologised to the community of people with disabilities for the historical lack of attention and emphasised that the current government’s goal is to achieve universal accessibility progressively. “Little by little, each year, all possible works will be developed in response to community demand, from groups and technical reports,” said Linares, who acknowledged that the municipality's size and hilly terrain complicate the task and that “it is a job that will take many years.”
Councillor Yurena Luis detailed that the works have been prioritised in the most frequented public places, such as schools, medical centres, and squares, as well as in the areas most travelled by citizens and tourists. Among the interventions carried out are road and pavement expansions, elimination of architectural barriers, pavement adjustments, resurfacing, creation of ramps, lowering of pavements, improvement of pedestrian crossings, signage, and installation of acoustic traffic lights.
The actions have been carried out in multiple locations throughout the municipality, including streets such as Puenteareas, Francisco Afonso Carrillo, Infanta Elena, Magistrado Barreda, Manuel Farrais, Leonor Monteverde, Sixto Perera, San Juan Bosco, San Isidro, La Palma, Juan Ortiz de Zárate, Manuel Rodríguez Mesa, El Rosario, Cuesta de Higa, Álvaro Hernández Díaz, El Cerrudo, El Mantillo, Dolores Martín García, San Juan, Domingo Febles, Martin Luther King, Arenas de San Pedro, San Francisco, avenues Sor Soledad Cobián and República de Venezuela, Paseo Araucarias, Camino Calderón, the area around Los Trazos park, the squares of La Florida and Cañeño, the bus station, the Las Cuevas urbanisation, and the Casa de la Cultura with its exterior square.
Luis emphasised that these actions “do not arise from an office or unilateral decisions” but from joint work with municipal technicians, associations, and users, analysing real needs and prioritising interventions that benefit the greatest number of people. “The investment of over half a million euros in more than a hundred actions is significant, but the most important thing is not the figures but the real impact these actions have on people's lives,” she added.
The mayor highlighted that the creation of a department dedicated exclusively to accessibility confirms the value placed on this issue and that “it must never disappear.” He also called for citizen co-responsibility: “It is very important to respect a space reserved for people with reduced mobility, not to park on a pavement, not to obstruct an adapted crossing... Understanding that a small gesture can greatly facilitate another person's life is also building an accessible municipality.”
The Town Hall assures that it will continue working with a plan of actions throughout the locality, addressing community proposals and those from disability associations, with the aim of achieving an accessible and inclusive municipality.
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