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Año XVI - Nº 183 - Diciembre | December | Dezember | Décembre - 2021
WHO’S WHO IN FUERTEVENTURA
Rita Díaz – Councillor for Urban planning, Heritage and Education and First Deputy Mayor for Tuineje’s Ayuntamiento
“We are at the population’s service and wish to achieve our objectives” FMHOY - Fuerteventura We are meeting with Rita Díaz who is currently the councillor for Urban Planning, Heritage and Education as well as First Deputy Mayor for Tuineje’s Ayuntamiento, for the past two months. For the past two years, she has been and still is the spokesperson for the socialist party. We had already met and interviewed Rita Díaz when she occupied different roles in politics, and we are glad to be able to chat with her once again about her new political activity. What does the First deputy Mayor do exactly? I am the substitute to the mayor when she cannot look after some task, or when she feels it is necessary. Although we all have responsibilities, she has more than anyone else. When did you get back into politics in Tuineje? Since 2015, when I ran as a candidate as head of the list for the Socialist Party in Tuineje, and we went into the opposition until January 2017. Then, thanks to a pact, we became part of the government again with Coalición Canaria, which was governing at the time and I remained there until 2019. I ran as a candidate again, and we went into the opposition for three months and thanks to another pact, we became part of the government again, together with the Partido Popular and Asamblea Municipal de Fuerteventura. What are your objectives in the different areas that you look after? Although we are at the service of the population, and we wish to achieve our objectives, we are governed by numerous norms that we have to respect. My objectives are to make improvements obviously, and I would like to have improved services before the end of the term and, therefore, the quality of life in the municipality. But in truth, we face many obstacles, because norms affect a lot more the smaller ayuntamientos. The norms are created by other institutions that sometimes involve greater budgets, more staff, etc. Our staff is overwhelmed. We are limited, especially considering that for many years, we could not recruit at all, although the services kept increasing.
But you can now recruit, can’t you? Yes, we can, but with many limitations; we don’t have enough staff to bring ourselves up to date in many areas. We tend to use agreements with the Cabildo or other institutions and employment plans. What can you tell us about the Heritage sector? As for the Heritage sector, our mission is to look after the existing heritage in the municipality. It is mostly an administrative task because other areas look after the development of other projects. Tell us about Urban Planning... It is a strong sector that implies a lot, because the regulations are established by other organisations and sometimes by the Canarian Government, and we must look after the population’s needs, which is difficult to combine with the regulations. We don’t have a planning, only subsidiary norms that date back to 1993, which are definitely obsolete. And
this General Planning Act, which doesn’t seem to ever get completed, is an essential tool for the Municipality’s development. As we keep on growing, we require more land to create the different services and infrastructures we need, as well as plots to build homes, as the population is increasing. What can you tell us about the Education sector? We look after the maintenance of six schools in the Municipality. We don’t look after secondary establishments, only primary schools. We also look after their cleaning and surveillance. We don’t have anything to do with educational management. There is always a lot to deal with... That is true, and at the moment I also look after the sectors of a colleague who is on maternity leave.