Lanzarote News In Brief – Week 16

Brief news week 16

Lanzarote Sailor Arrives Home In Style

Ariadna Martín, a 23 year old Lanzaroteña, returns to Lanzarote on Friday morning, as a third officer on a Royal Caribbean Premium cruise ship. Her ship, carrying 2,990 passengers and 1,000 crew, left London and stopped at Vigo, on her way to Lanzarote.

Head Of Timanfaya Calls On Cabildo To Stop Cars Visiting

The director of the Timanfaya National Park, Pascual Gil, has once again asked The Cabildo to stop vehicles from entering the park, after there were once again very long queues on the road leading to it. Gil’s proposal is that car parks should be set up in Yaiza and Tinajo, and people should be shuttled in to the park on coaches. He also pointed out that the shuttle bus service to Volcan del Cuervo and Caldera Blanca has been working well in recent weeks. Queues this week have been up to two hours long for people arriving in private or hire cars.

Costa Teguise Returns To Normality

Teguise town hall has issued a notice that all the beaches, car parks and roads in the resort have been returned to normal operation within just 72 hours of the floods. Cleaning brigades, composed of cleaning personnel, roads and works teams, parks and gardens, maintenance, personnel of the Civil Protection Consortium and police, as well as companies and individuals have helped in the tasks. “All of them demonstrating a commitment to recovery that has gone beyond their normal work responsibilities,” the consistory said in a statement.

Canarian Government Seeking To Restrict Property Purchases To Residents

Canarian President Fernando Clavijo is seeking to make a regulatory change within the EU to allow island states to restrict the purchase of property to island residents. The proposal is aimed at alleviating the housing crisis being faced currently in The Canaries, by reducing the number of properties being bought simply to make a profit from holiday letting them.

Floods Cause Chaos

A huge rain storm caused chaos in some parts of the island on Saturday, with Costa Teguise, Tahiche and Arrecife being the worst hit. Amazingly, other parts of the island were completely unaffected. Up to 120 liters per square meter were recorded in Tahíche, 100 in Costa Teguise and more than 60 in Arrecife.

Avenida Las Palmas in Costa Teguise was closed until Monday while it was being repaired. Several hotels in the resort had to close due to the loss of their electricity supplies. As of Monday, The Salinas, The HD, El Trebol and Santa Rosa remain closed. About 2,000 guests had to be moved to other accommodation.

The Cabildo has asked all those whose properties and possessions were affected to log the details with the Emergency Consortium by calling 928 80 40 04, so that appropriate measures can be taken.

Spanish Government Confirms Support

Central government in Madrid has confirmed they will provide financial support for this affected in the municipalities of Arrecife and Teguise, whose properties and cars were damaged by the flood water, via subsidies in situations of natural disaster Funds are already available to citizens, companies and local administrations affected.

Taxi Strike Not Biting So Far

The taxi driver’s strike started on the island this week, but so far, only around 30% of drivers are taking part, meaning there hasn’t been big disruptions in most parts of the island. It remains to be seen how this will affect the big influx of arrivals for Easter.

We’ll add more news here as it comes in this week……

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