Javier Fernández Ledo – Councillor for Urbanism, Planning, Heritage and New Technologies of Puerto del Rosario’s Ayuntamiento have plots and we will create buildings for education, nursery schools, housing, a large urban park and an underground carpark”

FMHOY - Fuerteventura

Javier Fernández Ledo is the councillor for Urbanism, Planning, Heritage and New Technologies of Puerto del Rosario’s Ayuntamiento, and we met him in his office to get his impressions on this term, which was marked by changes and the pandemic.

He explains that this is his first experience in politics, as he comes from the private sector, from companies related to the building trade, and that he frequently had to deal with the urbanism department, but as a client, for procedures.

And now that you live the situation from the inside, how do you feel about it?

We see everything differently from the inside. Furthermore, the pandemic showed how behind the ayuntamiento was, technologically speaking. Some people were working from here, others from home, it was very complicated.

We are about 10 years behind regarding digitalisation, and despite the problems, we have managed, during this term, to replace all the ayuntamiento’s computers.

We still have to digitalise everything, especially the files, so that if something similar happens again, we can work from laptop computers, from anywhere. People always tell us that the transition from working in the private sector to the public sector is quite tough, because of its bureaucracy and the slowness of the procedures. Do you feel the same way?

Yes, I do, definitely. First of all, the teams are very rigid, we cannot increase the number of staff, or make decisions if there are problems, we can’t hold anyone responsible, all in all, most of the time our hands are tied.

People tend to say that they get used to it...

No, I am not getting used to it, there are things we could achieve within one week that take two months; I miss the agility of the private sector.

Furthermore, we can’t rely on one person for more than one year, it’s absurd. Because we waste time training that person and by the time they are useful and productive, we let them go and have to start all over again with a new person.

It is a perverse system, as it makes people who can train others, waste their time, for nothing, and it affects everyone’s efficiency.

What can you tell us about Urbanism?

In Urbanism, there are three legs: one of them was partial plans that were all paralysed because the General Planning had just been approved and we had to allow time for the private sector to exercise their rights. Once this delay had passed, we put into action the most urgent projects, but there are many more to initiate.

I believe that for the future, the most important thing that we have carried out during this term, is the R1 partial plan, which is the town centre. That project had been paralysed for 15 years and we initiated it. We are working hand in hand with promotors to create an urbanisation project.

The whole area is going to be built and the ayuntamiento has got plots to create buildings for education, nursery schools, housing, a large urban park, which is already well underway, an underground carpark, etc. It represents a budget of 40 million Euros, plus what will be done in the street that joins Majada Martial with the centre of the capital.

The plots will be developed to create a true towncentre.

We should not forget that we are working for the next 5 to 8 years, it isn’t visible from one day to the next. And what can you tell us about heritage? Are there novelties?

The Heritage department has very few staff, we only had one lawyer and now there are two. But we need technicians because we still have to digitalise all of Puerto del Rosario’s Ayuntamiento heritage.

At present, we need to look through paperwork to find out what we have and how. We need to know the value of our heritage, estimate it with economists and control it.

Esther Hernández Marrero - Bürgermeisterin von Tuineje