Juan López Fuentes carries a mountain of papers and a slab of impotence. Behind him, he has accumulated more than two years registering writings and complaints in all administrations, and they all end up referring him to the same one: the Arrecife City Council, which does not even respond to him. He no longer knows which doors to knock on.
His fight, along with that of other residents of El Charco de San Ginés, is against a chimney. “The smell it gives off is unbearable. We can't even open the windows. Imagine what it's like to live with a neighbor frying fish for eight or ten hours every day, and with the chimney in front of your window,” he explains.
In this case, the “neighbor” is a restaurant, Casa del Miedo, which doesn't even have a license to carry out that activity.
Even the neighbors' complaints have revealed that the premises belong to the City Council, without there being a legal concession that covers the restaurant business. The property was once ceded by the City Council to the Sociedad de Cultura, Deportes y Recreo Casa del Miedo, but for purposes that are not those it currently carries out.
However, after more than two years of complaints, the restaurant continues to operate and the chimney emits “foul-smelling fumes and odors.”
Closure order that was not executed
Almost a year ago, the then Councilor for Infractions, Elisabeth Merino, signed a decree ordering its closure, following the file opened as a result of the neighbors' complaints. That file concluded that the House of Fear “is acting in fraud of law” and that it constitutes “unfair competition” for the rest of the bars and restaurants in the area.
But together with that resolution, another was issued, granting the association an extension of one month to “restore the legality of said activity,” if possible. Ten months have passed since then and nothing more has been heard.
Neither has Juan López Fuentes, who emphasizes that the City Council is the only administration that does not even respond to his writings. The Department of Health only did so once, in June 2021, to notify him that his complaint about the emission of fumes from the chimney should be processed by Salud Pública, which depends on the Government of the Canary Islands.
There his complaint entered a loop, because Juan had already previously referred to them, but they referred him to the City Council, which referred him back to Salud Pública, and the latter again to the Consistory. In that last response from Sanidad, they told him that the City Council had not “interpreted well,” since it was not “a food safety problem, but an environmental one,” so the powers do correspond to the Consistory.
“We understand that (the chimney) has had to be evaluated and authorized by technicians from Classified Activities of your City Council, complying with municipal regulations on the height and characteristics of said emitting chimney, in order to minimize the annoying or unhealthy effects that may occur,” the head of Public Health stated in a letter dated August 2021.
Again, Juan López turned to the City Council, but received no further response. They didn't even inform him of the file that was opened and that gave rise to that closure order that never came to be executed.
In that resolution, it was warned that “in the event that the closure does not occur voluntarily, the same will be sealed by the Local Police of Arrecife,” which never happened.
Faced with this inaction, the neighbors also went on several occasions to the Cabildo, which even made a visit to the premises and a year ago asked the City Council for explanations. Afterwards, he responded to the neighbors by transferring the Consistory's response, which alleged that it already had an open file.
“I no longer know where to turn”
“We have gone to all levels and it is a circle that I no longer know where to go, I don't know where to turn,” laments Juan, who keeps dozens of writings with complaints and denunciations, even on several occasions before the Local Police.
“All we want is for them to find a solution to the chimney. I don't know what the solution is, but please find it,” he demands. In his words he conveys frustration and impotence, but he does not lose his composure, despite the two years of struggle.
In fact, he insists that he does not want to cause any damage to the association. “We don't want the House of Fear to close. I think it is an emblematic place, it is a place where people have always gone, they have done cultural activities, they participate in the San Ginés festivities, they do carnivals...”
However, he also underlines how the premises have deviated from those beginnings, since the take-off of El Charco de San Ginés as a place of leisure and restoration. “I am one of the clients who frequently went to eat there. They had a small bar, they did four little things, but not a restaurant like now, which is harming the neighbors. I believe that the City Council, if it has a property that is its own, the least it has to do is harm the neighbors. May they seek a solution for the good of all, may we all be able to live together. That is the only thing I ask of them.”
“The activities they used to carry out are now non-existent”
In the association's statutes, it states that its purposes are “the development and protection of all kinds of cultural and artistic data, the practice and promotion of sports events, promoting and facilitating all kinds of lawful games and distractions to its members, organizing parties and social gatherings, as well as protecting the entire environment of the Charco de San Ginés.”
In this regard, in one of the many writings sent by the neighbors to the administrations, they point out that “the sports, cultural and recreational activities that were carried out in the past” are “non-existent today due to the exclusive development of the restaurant.”
It was in September 2020 when six neighbors signed the first writing. In it they explained that three months before they had started some works to install a chimney on the roof of the Casa del Miedo, “where there is a small playground,” and that it was generating “unpleasant, foul-smelling fumes and odors, harmful to the health of people who pass through there and a large part of the neighborhood adjacent to the indicated park.”
In this regard, they specified that other restaurants in the area “have always had the chimneys of their kitchens well above the top of the buildings where they are located,” which prevents neighbors from “suffering the consequences.” However, this was not their case, with a chimney that ends at the height of their houses.
“It is a restaurant that is open every day, until 12 at night, with breakfast, snack, dinner, group services, they do everything,” underlines Juan, to reflect how the neighbors have been living for more than two years.
During this time they have had conversations with some councilors, who told them that the premises are municipal property and that they are not authorized to operate as a restaurant, promising them a solution. That was in June 2021 and they are still waiting for it.
Complaints to the Local Police and even an inspection
Juan López has filed up to two complaints with the Local Police, which so far have also had no consequences. Between the first and the second, he does state that he saw two agents who were patrolling in the area enter the premises, “requesting the corresponding opening license for the operation of the restaurant, as well as the complaint forms.” According to him, they left 30 minutes later without being given that documentation, so he asked them to record what happened.
“I had no idea that it does not have an opening license for restoration and terrace”, explains Juan, who after two years of battle affirms that he has also discovered that “it occupies more space than stipulated by the City Council for the terrace and that it violates and exceeds the number of tables and chairs enabled for restoration.”
In any case, he insists that all they want is a solution to the chimney problem. “The neighbors don't care what it has or doesn't have, we don't care,” he says, without explaining why the City Council still doesn't act. “It's very strange. I wonder if something is happening about who is responsible”, he concludes.
