STRICTER CONTROLS TO MONITOR THE CAPACITY OF EL MÉDANO BEACH
2020/08/17 17:13:18 Written by Canarian Weekly Tenerife
The Granadilla town hall have installed billboards, signs, and messages by loudspeaker, to remind bathers of the mandatory compliance with the safety distance and the use of masks, on El Médano beach.
The beach is one of the busiest bathing areas in the south of the island, particularly at weekends, so surveillance and control measures were activated last weekend, to guarantee the safety distance between bathers, monitor the use of the masks, now obligatory in the Canary Islands, and Local Police officers to control the capacity.
Beach-goers found it very different from usual this weekend, with chains and fences installed by the Council, that forced them to enter the sand area through a single access controlled by two agents of the Local Police, between 10am and 8pm only.
This made it possible to significantly improve safety compared to the previous weekend, although at times of high tide some problems were generated by reducing the width of the sand and, therefore, the available space.
The Councillor for Security, María Candelaria Rodríguez, made a positive assessment of the new systems, highlighting the work of the Local Police and thanking local residents for their collaboration. The mayor explained that two agents controlled the entrance and exit of the beach at all times, while another three patrolled the area to avoid crowds on walkways and terraces, monitoring compliance with sanitary measures.
In addition, Rodríguez highlighted the attitude of the beach users, “In general, they gave us their approval with the controls, because they are aware of the risks to which we all expose ourselves to, if we do not maintain a responsible attitude,” she explained.
She added that the system will continue at weekends, but warned that if an increase in the number of bathers is detected between Monday and Friday, controls will be used all week.
For his part, the mayor of Granadilla de Abona, José Domingo Regalado, said that in El Médano, the residents, the owners of second homes, and citizens from all over the Island use the beach in Summer, so in addition to highlighting the operation of the device on beaches, walkways and bars and restaurants, he appealed to individual responsibility to avoid possible infections.