News in brief

⭕ The Spanish government has decided to reduce VAT on Olive Oil from the 10% reduced VAT category to the super-reduced VAT category, currently set at 4%. This decision elevates olive oil to the status of a staple food, joining the ranks of bread, eggs, fruits, and vegetables, which already enjoy a reduced VAT rate.

⭕ Rosa Dávila, president of the island corporation, revealed that a plan for a conventional commuter train between San Isidro and Adeje and a tram-train between La Laguna and Tacoronte that passes through Los Rodeos airport is being worked on by technicians. The Island Council is working at full speed to speed up the process once the Islands Government makes progress in the talks with the State government to introduce Tenerife’s rail projects into the national network. The North airport /Tacoronte is the second phase of the development which presents “different solutions” to those in the south, where train planning is “well advanced” and only funding needs to be secured.

⭕ The ES-Alert emergency notification system for the population will be tested on Thursday, June 27 in La Gomera. The test has already been carried out in Fuerteventura, El Hierro, the urban centres of Garachico in Tenerife and Valleseco, Gran Canaria, as well as in La Palma and Lanzarote.

⭕ National Police from Puerto de la Cruz have arrested a 35-year-old man, with a police record, for an alleged crime of sexual assault and threats. The victim filed a complaint in which she stated that she was inside her house when the alleged perpetrator entered her room managed to immobilize her and then sexually assaulted her while threatening to kill her.

⭕ The mayor of Santa Cruz, yesterday presented the new summer season at the Maritime Park, which brings important new features that will result in a better service for users. The Councillor said “We have made a solid commitment to providing the best resources to the facility” and “we have invested in the purchase of 1,000 sun loungers and 150 umbrellas and we are going to undertake improvements to the changing rooms, the first aid area, the staff facilities and the outdoor showers. The budget for this project will be €650,000″.

⭕ The cruise ship ‘Insignia’ arrived on Friday, at around 05.30 hours, at the port of Santa Cruz with 64 rescued migrants and the bodies of another 4 who did not manage to survive when they were crossing the Canary Islands route on board a cayuco.

⭕ The La Orotava City Council announced this Friday that Los Patos Beach will remain closed to the public throughout the summer due to landslides in the area.

⭕ The coordination group of the Acoustic Insulation Plan of the Tenerife South airport held its second meeting in which Aena announced the tender for work to improve the acoustic insulation in more than 900 homes near the airport after carrying enquiries. The current census of homes included in the company’s plan is 2,456 properties in Arona, Granadilla and San Miguel.

⭕ The Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), has presented the new base of the basic life support ambulance located in Granadilla. The premises are located on C. Los Parques, in the old municipal funeral home, in the centre of Granadilla, and have the necessary infrastructure in terms of safety and prevention of occupational risks, so that health personnel who work in the resource have a waiting and resting place until they are activated to respond to an emergency.

⭕ The Canary Islands Government guarantees a 75% discount on boat tickets between islands. The Executive will pay 25% and the State will maintain 50% of the cost for Canarian residents who use maritime transport. Applications may be submitted within a period of one month, starting from the day following publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.

⭕ Cepsa continues to advance in the dismantling of the Santa Cruz refinery and has put up for auction machinery and materials that will not be useful in Granadilla when the migration process is completed. The company seeks to save dismantling costs since it imposes on buyers the price of uninstalling the equipment.

⭕ The Canary Islands Government will reinforce the National Police and Guardia Civil with 357 agents on the occasion of Operation Summer. In total, the nine autonomous communities that experience the greatest tourist influx this summer will see their operations reinforced from July 1 until August 31

⭕ The president of the Cabildo has reported that “of the 75 measures included in the decree declaring a water emergency, 90% are already underway, that is, about 67 that are already being promoted from the Cabildo, Balten and Insular Water Council” to face the extreme drought situation that affects the Island. Starting in July, there will be nearly 12,000 more cubic meters of water per day.

⭕ Meteorologist Vicky Palma warns of the danger of forest fires that Tenerife is facing, especially this summer that has just begun, greater than that of 2023 when the Island suffered one of the worst fires in its history, which devastated more than 12,000 hectares of the Corona Forestal. «We started the firefighting campaign with worse conditions than last year due to the seven episodes of high temperatures and the lack of rainfall,» she said.

⭕ The thirteen town councils that make up the Association of Tourist Municipalities of the Canary Islands held an assembly this week where one of the objectives was to share their points of view on the possibility of charging a fee for visitors like the one announced by the mayor of Mogán ( Gran Canaria). The president of the group the mayor of Adeje admitted “There are several of us with different views it is a little dangerous for us to rush into action and implement whatever ideas come our way. We need to work with criteria that are more forward-looking and more profound.” 

⭕ The president of the Tenerife Cabildo said this week that “no one has ruled out” the construction of a ‘Tenerife Arena’, a large-scale sports and event infrastructure, on the land where the Refinery was located.

⭕ Despite the housing emergency, more than 25,000 licenses in the Canary Islands are waiting to be processed. The Tenerife Builders’ Association, FEPECO said there are more unbuilt homes due to licenses not being obtained on time. He said some cases take up to two years to process.

⭕ The Superior Court of Justice (TSJC) has sentenced the Tenerife Social and Health Care Institute and its manager to pay €20,000 to a nursing assistant for sexual harassment in the workplace.

⭕ The first of the four days planned by Santa Cruz Council to carry out the pilot test of the bus lane to Las Teresitas, an exclusive route that runs from the fishing dock to the coloured bridge of San Andrés, passed without major inconveniences, except for some mistakes by drivers who tried to use the area reserved for buses, but who were quickly alerted by the Local Police.