Photos: Sergio Betancort
The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Las Palmas has opened proceedings to investigate the "extractive activities" of the company Transportes y Excavaciones Tiagua on the Los Mármoles road, where, among other things, it has been operating a crusher without a license. This company has been operating for years on a plot located next to the Circunvalación, between Las Caletas and the road that goes from Arrecife to Costa Teguise, where this type of activity is not allowed, since the PIOT classifies that land as rustic agricultural.
Now, the prosecutor Carlos Fernández Seijo has sent a letter to the Department of Urban Planning of the Arrecife City Council, dated January 3, so that the City Council sends him "certified and duly numbered copies" of the files opened to the company for these events.
More than a year ago, in November 2015, La Voz de Lanzarote already reported what was happening on that plot, where a crusher, a screening machine and other machinery could be seen, including backhoes, despite the fact that they did not have a license nor does the current planning allow authorizing that activity there. In addition, next to machinery typical of a quarry, slopes could already be seen that could show that they were not only treating materials brought from other places, but were extracting them in that area.
A permit linked to a work that ended two years ago
As La Voz published at the time, the only thing the company had was a permit from the City Council for "stockpiling materials" on that plot, linked to the doubling works of the Circunvalación, as it was a work of "insular general interest". But that permit, which was granted exceptionally, only allowed storing materials from the work there, while the work on the Circunvalación lasted, and in no case authorized extracting construction materials from that soil or using a crusher. In fact, two years ago the company tried to "legalize" its activity, requesting territorial qualification from the Arrecife City Council, but it was denied because it was incompatible with the planning, which classifies that land as rustic for agricultural use.
In addition, although the works on the Circunvalación ended two years ago, the company continued to carry out its activity on that plot afterwards. And it continued to do so, according to neighborhood complaints that this media continued to receive, at least until last November, that is, until a year after La Voz published that report.
At the end of 2015, coinciding with that publication, a neighbor reported the situation to the City Council. In addition, the Arrecife councilor Andrés Medina finally decided to bring the facts to the attention of the Prosecutor's Office, after repeatedly denouncing that the activity continued to take place.
Now, the prosecutor has addressed the heads of the Urban Planning Discipline service and the Urban Planning department of the City Council, requesting copies of the files that the City Council has opened, and of which its result or the measures adopted to stop this illegal activity have never transpired, in case it had done so.
Contractor of public works
The Tiagua Group was established in 2000 and began with "the provision of transport services, earthmoving, services with cranes and other lifting equipment", as the company itself explains on its website. Later, it expanded its "field of action", with the "construction of large structures and civil works facilities, such as rainwater networks, foundations, construction of walls, sidewalks, to the most complex construction of buildings with facilities".
In recent years, especially through Transportes y Excavaciones Tiagua, this business group has been awarded different public works by the Cabildo de Lanzarote. In addition, it is part of the UTE Lanzarote Selectiva, which was awarded the selective collection service for packaging, paper and cardboard waste in Lanzarote, for 4.2 million euros, and has also been awarded several works by Canal Gestión Lanzarote.
