The Administrative Litigation Court number 6 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria condemned the Teguise City Council on April 2 to pay 456,680.14 euros for the forced expropriation of a property of 967 square meters in San Borondón street in Caleta de Famara. This is revealed by the documentation that La Voz has been able to access.
In February 2022, the four previous owners of the land demanded that the council pay the "fair price". As the payment was not made, they filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Litigation Court. Two years later, in April 2024, a final judgment declared "the inactivity" of the council and forced it to execute the payment for the occupation of the property. In addition, it gave it three months from that date to proceed with the payment.
The aforementioned report to which La Voz has had access reveals that the council will have to pay a total of 456,680.14 euros by July 4, between the "fair price" of the expropriated land and the interest, which amounts to 113,018.53 euros.
“Time proves us right with this new ruling that adds to the judicial convictions for the well-known Tahíche case and the forced expropriation of another plot in Caleta de Famara, which have meant for the public coffers the payment of six million euros for some plots that remain without known use, despite our initiatives in this regard to give them a social use”, highlighted the socialist spokesman in Teguise, Marcos Bergaz.
This ruling has been revealed by the PSOE of Teguise, which has denounced the "inactivity" of the City Council, presided over by Coalición Canaria, the Partido Popular and Vox. In this line, he recalled that "since 2021, we have been underlining as the main opposition party that things in terms of expropriations were not being done well, we are in 2024 and unfortunately what was said is confirmed again”.
The socialist has also referred to a financial control report, issued on April 11 by the Intervention of the Teguise City Council on forced expropriations, which this editorial team has also been able to access.
The aforementioned text states that "the most alarming thing is that it is evident that there is a total lack of coordination on the part of the different departments that intervene in an expropriation file and that ends up in court", including the Technical Office, the Legal Advice, the Cadastre, Heritage and Economics, "which is causing damage to this administration". In addition, it highlights that "each one acts independently, when we are facing a single administration".
As an example, he alluded to the recent financial control report of April 11, 2024, issued by the Intervention of the Teguise City Council, on financial control in the area of urban expropriations that affect the municipality, which states that “the existing lack of coordination is causing us economic damage”.
“In addition to this, CC, PP and Vox, have not convened the commission to share and analyze all the political parties of the Consistory, the urban claims that the City Council faces, including the one that has motivated this ruling, despite the fact that its creation was approved in the extraordinary plenary session of November 2023”, recalled the socialist leader.
To conclude, Bergaz has denounced that “given the urgency of paying this last conviction, a budget modification is being taken to the plenary session this Wednesday, May 8, to ‘draw’ on the savings (remnants) of the teguiseños and gracioseros with a view to complying with the judicial pronouncement, for which there are three months”.