Several environmental associations on the island and more than fifty people in their personal capacity have come out to criticize "the intended repeal of a large part of the regulations, urban planning determinations and indicative guidelines of the Island Plan of Lanzarote of 1991 by the plenary of the Island Council." They denounce "the opacity and lack of transparency of the territorial policy of the current Government group of the Island Council."
"We learned about these facts from the press, which are of great importance for land management and for the preservation of the culture of care and protection of the environment in Lanzarote," they lament in a joint statement.
They point out that "the current government group has not generated the slightest debate or information campaign on the scope, effectiveness, significance or objectives of this repeal of the island's territorial planning instrument."
"A measure as important for the territorial organization of the island as the repeal of a large part of the articles of the 1991 Island Plan has not been submitted to debate or a period of allegations and public information," they add.
The associations recall that the Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has recently ruled on this issue. The Chamber considered that "what is intended by the Plenary of the Island Council of Lanzarote is nothing more than an interpretative agreement that has no direct legal effect" in the external sphere of the administrators, highlighting the legal irrelevance outside the internal scope of the administration.
The intended repeal "entails legal uncertainty with very serious consequences"
They also complain that "after almost four years of legislature, a new Plan has not been processed nor a Full Substantial Modification of the same has been faced", "but they opt for a repeal without effects or effectiveness against third parties. The only intention is to ignore the regulations of the Island Plan in the internal technical reports, without it being able to have effects against third parties, which inevitably leads to a patent legal uncertainty and a foreseeable litigation and conflict of very serious consequences."
They denounce that "the intended repeal far exceeds the provisions of the Land Law of 2017, since they do not limit themselves to repealing the urban planning determinations contrary to the Land Law of 2017, but repeal environmental and energy determinations, guidelines that affect public transport, the subsidization of agriculture, the preservation of the landscape and natural spaces as an indicative guideline.
They consider that "the way to address this repeal, as indicated in the judgments already cited, should not be through a mere interpretative agreement, but through addressing the mandatory Full Substantial Modification of the 1991 PIOL."
They also denounce that the determinations and guidelines that are intended to be repealed from the 1991 PIOL by plenary agreement, "are not submitted to the criterion of legality established by jurisprudence but to the clumsy political interpretation made by the government team of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, by repealing guidelines that affect rustic protection land and activities expressly prohibited by the 1991 Island Plan, such as the holding of rallies on rural roads, dirt roads or agricultural roads."
Finally, they consider that "this territorial policy led by the current government group is not respectful of the rules of transparency, good governance or a mature and participatory democracy." "It has no other purpose," they continue, than to "authorize or allow actions that directly clash with the territorial culture of the island, with the preservation of the landscape, with the condition of Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote and with the 20-30 Agenda, so we request that the approval by plenary agreement of the Government Team be abandoned, the immediate withdrawal of the proposal be proceeded and the necessary and urgent Full Substantial Modification of the PIOL be faced with all the necessary legal guarantees."
This statement has also been signed by numerous individuals and by the following organizations: Association for the Conservation of Canarian Biodiversity (ACBC); General Confederation of Labor (CGT – Lanzarote); Group of Ornithology and Natural History of the Canary Islands (GOHNIC); Papacría; Pueblo Maho; Urban Transparency; Northeast Wind (Desert Watch) and WWF.