The mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, has already responded to the latest request from the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, which demanded that he explain why he has not yet executed the sentence on one of the skeletons of Costa Teguise, located next to La Mareta, even warning him with personal fines of 1,000 euros per month and with personal actions against him if he continues without executing the ruling.
In his writing, dated last Friday, February 4, Betancort assures that the City Council "has not avoided compliance with the judicial mandate at any time", although he acknowledges that "the processing has been delayed over time, among others, but mainly, due to the enormous workload supported by the departments to which it corresponds of this Entity, and the shortage of human resources to face it".
"With all due respect, I understand that the imposition of coercive fines is not appropriate, since this Mayor does want to comply with the execution of the sentence", defends Betancort, who insists on the "difficulties" to execute the ruling, which was issued in 2007 and has not been complied with since then, despite the fact that in 2015 the Court expressly required the Consistory to do so.
In addition to the lack of personnel, the mayor attributes the delay to "the magnitude of the work to be demolished" and the cost that it will entail; and also to the fact that "in the last months of last year" they became aware that a new company had bought the plot. "You must be notified of the procedures carried out in execution of the sentence, such as the obligation to which you are compelled as the owner of the plot; and this to avoid causing you defenselessness in one case and serious economic damage to the municipal coffers in the other", adds Betancort.
Contributes a proposal for bidding for the service from May 2021
Regarding those "procedures" carried out by the Consistory to comply with the ruling -which were those on which the Court asked for explanations-, the mayor only refers to one, which is the one he provides as a document. Specifically, it is a report-proposal signed in May of last year by a municipal engineer, defending the need to hire a consulting and technical assistance service to prepare the project for the demolition of the work and cleaning of the land.
In this regard, the mayor affirms that the bidding procedure is being "processed", although he does not specify what steps have been taken since then, nor whether the property has been required to demolish the skeleton with its own resources.
It should be remembered that the Cabildo -which was the one who denounced that illegal license and who managed to stop the construction in its day- had requested the execution of the sentence and the demolition, but claiming in the first instance that the property be required to assume it, and in case it did not, that the City Council carry it out, but charging the costs generated to the company.
Asks the TSJC to review the steps taken within two months
For his part, the mayor confirms that the only option is demolition, given the impossibility of legalizing it, and assures that "it must be materialized in the course of this year".
Thus, he asks the Court for more time and undertakes to inform it "fully and promptly of all the procedures to be carried out in the file". On the one hand, to contract that external service, for which he assures that the corresponding area will be "provided with more resources". On the other hand, with the communications that "are addressed" to the new entity that owns the plot, with which he affirms that he will try to carry out "negotiations to shorten the deadlines and avoid costs to the local entity".
In addition, it establishes a period of "two months" for the Court to review "compliance with all of this", asking it to "invalidate" the fines with which it had warned him until then.
