Lanzarote is still without an animal crematorium five months after the closure of the only one on the island. On June 21, the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Arrecife City Council against the company Reguimir concluded that the company had started working without the corresponding enabling title and ordered to temporarily suspend its activity.
This decision was ratified on September 30, 2022 in a plenary session that led to the decree of the "sealing of the activity" on October 28 of that same year. However, the administrator of the Hela pet crematorium, Juan Reguilón, questions the official version. "You start to think that this is a game of chess and you are the pawn," he says in statements to this editorial staff.
The reasons stated in the proposal for resolution of the disciplinary proceedings insist that the businessman did not submit the technical project that was required by the Arrecife City Council on two occasions. The first in April 2020 and the second in November 2021.
"We did not close voluntarily. We complied with the closure decree thinking that they were going to act in good faith," says the crematorium administrator.
The owner of the premises and administrator of the company filed an optional appeal against the plenary agreement that decided to close the activity and that brought with it the loss of all its income. Reguimir insisted that the Vice-Ministry of the Environment proposed the company to be granted the activity authorization. This appeal was rejected by the Arrecife City Council. "He has not submitted all the documentation," the City Council repeated at the time.
Currently the case continues to be litigated and the company is studying taking more measures. "I have not spoken with the City Council since December," says Juan Reguilón. Reguilón went to the Contentious-Administrative Court after exhausting the administrative channel. The case is affected by the strike of magistrates.
"It is clear that someone is not reading the documentation, because everything they ask for has been submitted," insists Juan Reguilón in statements to this media outlet. The administrator is accompanied by dozens of pages of information.
Innocuous or classified activity?
The story between the company specialized in animal cremation and the Arrecife City Council was getting worse over time. In 2017, the company submitted to the Arrecife City Council the prior communication and the responsible declaration to start the activity in the Hela animal crematorium. In this document, advised by a specialist, Juan Reguilón estimated that, due to the characteristics of his crematorium, he should process the registration as a harmless activity and not as a classified one. To support his decision, he submitted several reports, including the compatibility of the property with the use as a crematorium or the technical certificate.
In broad terms, a harmless activity includes those that do not cause discomfort, alter health conditions, cause damage to the environment or produce risks for other people. If any of these points are not met, it should be registered as a classified activity.
The Canary Islands Commission for Territorial Planning and Environment (COTMAC) had approved the environmental assessment project of the Hela crematorium. "Since 2017 each organism was advancing at its own pace, I was processing everything that was asked of me, but the Arrecife City Council was left behind," begins the businessman.
The procedures advanced and in February 2019, the Ministry of Sustainability requested from the Arrecife City Council a report on the environmental impact of the crematorium in Agustín de la Hoz street. In March, the City Council replied by sending the documentation.
Juan Reguilón assures that in those two years no one from the City Council had contacted him. In a first letter issued by the City Council, dated April 23, 2020, the owner of Reguimir was asked to indicate if the capacity for the treatment of animal waste exceeded one ton per day. That same document stated that in that case "the activity should be processed as classified."
Since then, the City Council and the businessman exchanged requirements and documentation. In a new document from October 2021, the City Council required Reguimir to correct some deficiencies. It also requested that the type of activity be changed and go from harmless to classified. A year earlier, the businessman had justified in a correction letter why he did not register as a classified activity, but the municipal body insisted that "it did not meet the technical conditions."
In the motivation to request this change, the City Council relies on "the continuous neighborhood complaints about smoke and bad odors", as well as the fact that the incineration of waste is included within the classified activities. As of November 2021 there were only two complaints, both for odors caused during the activity. "Two complaints in two years are not continuous complaints," defends Juan Reguilón, surprised by the decision of the C
onsistorio. "The premises are in an industrial area and comply with all the requirements for smoke, fire prevention, the crematorium oven is isolated," he details.
Disciplinary proceedings
The Arrecife City Council initiated disciplinary proceedings against the company on April 6, 2022. Only 24 hours after the visit of a Local Police officer to the establishment. "The activity is carried out without the mandatory mandatory title," said the report signed by the chief sub-commissioner of the Corps. At the same time, he stated that the administrator of the company gave him the document of prior communication of the start of the activity, registered in 2017.
The police intervention report stated that the businessman did not have an opening license.
As a result of the initiation of the disciplinary proceedings, the company Reguimir SL submitted allegations to the Department of Activities, directed by Echedey Eugenio (Canarian Coalition). Among the arguments of the company is that it is the competent body that grants a company the enabling title or not, so if it does not respond within two months it is understood to be approved by administrative silence.
The administrator of Hela maintains that at the moment he submitted the responsible declaration and the prior communication of the start of activity "years passed" without the City Council taking measures. In addition, he maintains that all the required documentation was always submitted.
The City Council ignored the allegations and continued with the proceedings. At this point it decided to classify the infraction as "very serious" because supposedly the company did not have the mandatory enabling title and the businessman was required to cease the activity "immediately." This resolution was signed electronically by the councilor Román Maciot (nationalist group). The infraction can have a sanction that ranges between 15,000 and 30,000 euros.
Classified activity
In the middle of the sanctioning process, the company Reguimir issued a second responsible declaration. So that it registered the activity of Hela as classified and not as it remained until now in the category of harmless. This declaration was also signed by the councilor Echedey Eugenio.
"The law says that a new file can be opened to correct the errors of another," justifies Juan Reguilón why he registered the crematorium as a classified activity, although he had already registered it as a harmless activity.
To the courts
After exhausting the administrative channel, the company filed an administrative appeal against the decision of the City Council. After the last allegation presented in November, Juan Reguilón believes that from the City Council "they rushed the deadlines so that the passage to the administrative litigation was delayed as much as possible."
The second file continues unresolved. "We have not received a response after the last documentation sent in the summer of 2022," he explains. At the same time, together with his legal representatives, they are studying new measures against the City Council.
"Activities that were decreed the closure the same day as me, are already open," he reflects.
