The Island Council and municipal governments will share responsibility for managing the registry of sports facilities

Laura Castro, the island’s Director of Sports for the Tenerife Island Council, met today with representatives from twenty municipal governments to discuss the opportunities offered to municipalities by the update to the sports facilities registry—a powerful digital tool that will allow them to register their own facilities or report any improvements that may have been made to them, among many other features.

“This tool will allow us to jointly manage the census across different government agencies for the benefit of the public—an initiative that has only two precedents in Spain, in the Basque Country and Navarre, where it has yielded very good results,” explained the island’s director, who added that following this census update, they will move forward with equipping outdoor sports facilities and designing programs for the use of those facilities. She also informed the municipal governments of the upcoming launch of a grant program for municipal outdoor facilities.

Laura Castro highlighted some of the advantages of this inventory of sports facilities, which is shared with local governments: “It will allow for the geolocation of these spaces, will be available in English to reach potential sports tourists, and will include Tenerife’s trail network, the BICA network for bicycles and horses, locations of activity areas for surfing and windsurfing, and other information of interest for water sports and activities in unconventional settings.”

For her part, the island’s Sports Councilor, Concepción Rivero, noted today that one of the advantages of modernizing the census is that the data can be updated immediately using the templates proposed by the Higher Sports Council, which standardize terminology and analysis criteria. “We have also taken this opportunity to include in the registry new facilities or spaces for sports activities that were not previously included, such as the BICA Network for bicycles and horses or the network of trails, which we are now incorporating.”

The Sports Minister stated that this dynamic and modern tool “will allow residents to find out where Tenerife’s outdoor sports facilities are located—which are currently in high demand as a result of COVID-19— or make online reservations based on the availability of island-wide or municipal facilities.”

“It was necessary to assess the current state of sports facilities because the inventory hadn’t been updated in nearly a decade, and now, thanks to this platform, we’ll be able to collaboratively create a real, up-to-date inventory that will raise the profile of municipalities and make it easier for citizens to access sports facilities and spaces,” he said.

Ordinance for Cyclists and Pedestrians

At today’s meeting, municipal representatives were also briefed on the model ordinance drafted by the Tenerife Island Council’s Sports Department to regulate the movement of cyclists and pedestrians in urban areas, which can serve as a guide for municipalities that lack such regulations or wish to update them. The document, which was developed in collaboration with groups such as Tenerife por la Bici, serves as a regulatory framework for practices such as the use of electric scooters and bicycles.

Rivero emphasized that “drafting a model ordinance helps ensure, to the extent possible, that regulations governing this type of mobility are consistent across the entire island, so as to avoid regulatory uncertainty for citizens who travel by bicycle between different municipalities.”