This technical body will coordinate the services and actions carried out in the World Heritage area to guarantee the protection of its Outstanding Universal Value.

The Office of Integral Management of the Historic City (OGICH) of the City Council of La Laguna today received representatives of the municipal political groups to inform them of the work and objectives of this body in 2025, a period in which the only World Heritage Site in the Canary Islands will face important organisational challenges, with the start of the drafting of its first Management Plan and the updating of the Special Protection Plan.

Adolfo Cordobés, Councillor for Cultural Heritage and Director of the Urban Planning Department, thanked the councillor for Drago Verdes Canarias, Carmen Peña, and the non-attached councillor, José Manuel Brito, for attending this informative meeting, to which all the opposition groups had been invited and which was also attended by the technical director of the Department, María Bencomo, and the head of the Historical Quarter Management Service of the autonomous body, Beatriz Simón.

During the meeting, the operation of this advisory and technical body, which is supported by the human and material resources of the aforementioned Service and which has been designed to centralise and coordinate the interventions, services and activities that the different municipal areas carry out in the historic city, in accordance with the provisions of the World Heritage Convention and its Operational Guidelines, was discussed in depth.

Cordobés explained that ‘we want to reinforce the efficiency and security of management in an area of great complexity and dynamism, and this Office will allow us to optimise resources and increase the coordination of all efforts aimed at the conservation, improvement, sustainable development and social cohesion of this important heritage area’.

In this sense, he recalled that ‘the OGICH will play a fundamental role in the broad programme we have launched to promote the safeguarding and dissemination of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), as well as the authenticity and integrity of the historic complex. All this at a time when we have to address new risks and, without compromising existing heritage values and the sustainability of this important legacy for present and future generations, contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of residents.

The Office will be responsible for advising the municipal areas and coordinating with regard to municipal public works, urban public services, the holding of cultural and festive activities, traffic management, as well as any other municipal competence that is executed or developed in the area of the Historic City.