The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has annulled in appeal proceedings the resolution of the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria that on February 24, 2023 dismissed the request made by the community of residents of a building near Santa Catalina Park so that the concert of the singer Carlos Baute would not be held on the night of February 25 of that year.
The Court, which revokes a ruling of instance favorable to the City Council, understands that this municipal decision meant a "unilateral and abusive interpretation" of the agreement approved by judicial resolution that in 2015 the City Council reached with these residents to reconcile the celebration of the festivities with their right to rest.
The agreement, the ruling recalls, only authorized concerts that were held within the two main galas of the festivities, the queen's and the drag's.
The sentence condemns the City Council to pay the costs and recalls that among the clauses agreed in 2015 between the City Council and the residents there is one that is "categorical" and that establishes that in the park only two concerts can be held and only after the two galas, "referred to as is known to the Drag gala and the Queen of Carnival gala.
"Therefore, the celebration of the Carlos Baute concert should have taken place after either of the two galas, the Queen's Gala which was on Friday, February 24, and the Drag Gala on March 3, and not on February 25, when it was held."
The agreement, the court argues, "provides that the concerts are held after the two galas, with clear reference to those that have greater diffusion in the acts of the carnival." Therefore, it continues, the community of owners "had no obligation to accept the imposition of an additional day of concert, since the Carlos Baute concert was scheduled on a day different from the galas."
The Chamber recalls that the agreement between the City Council and the residents, after being approved in court, is of "mandatory compliance."
It adds that, according to the clauses of this agreement, it is necessary that a representative of the community of residents and of the Delegation in the Canary Islands of the Association of Jurists against Noise "be part of the meetings in which the proposals for decisions for the festival are formulated, having all the existing information in the entire organizational and preparatory process of the carnival nights of each year."
"It is notorious that the carnival festivities, due to their dimension and importance, are prepared in advance," emphasizes the sentence, "which is not compatible with what happened in the meetings, in which the residents were asked to endure six concerts until three in the morning in January 2023."
"The residents cannot be waiting for a concert to end at three in the morning to rest," the sentence concludes.
