The eight stalls located in the Arrecife Fairgrounds must leave there, at the latest, this Monday at noon. The City Council has notified them that they have to leave the place for lacking a license and after finding "spills" of "fats and oils" into a rainwater channel that goes to the sea. This was explained by the responsible councilor, Carmen Delgado. "If I am aware that a regulation is being violated, I have to force it to be complied with as soon as possible," she argues. One of these merchants claims to have had his stall in that area for 20 years and regrets that the City Council has not given them "alternatives," while fearing losing his "livelihood." He assures that they pass "inspections" and believes that the City Council is trying to "wash its hands" for the latest e-coli contaminations. "Where do I go now, at 64 years old and sick with diabetes?" he asks.
According to Carmen Delgado, "none" of those stalls has an activity license. "When they were installed, they did so with a temporary street trading permit, for a specific time and specific hours," she explains, pointing out that despite this they have remained there "continuously." According to her, the City Council became aware of their situation after an inspection found "spills from those trailers" in a rainwater channel in the area. "Then I sent the Police, who carried out an inspection of the place and asked everyone who was there for some type of authorization. And none has provided any permit. So there is no choice but to remove them, because they are violating the regulations," Delgado has pointed out.
The councilor has denied that this fact is related to the recent contaminations with e-coli bacteria on El Reducto beach. According to her account, the inspection in which those spills from the stalls were found was initiated due to that fecal contamination on the beach, but the spills are not related to it. "The e-coli contaminations are what led to the inspection of the channel, to see where those spills were, and that is when that was discovered," she explains, recalling that the City Council is "removing" fecal water connections that flowed into that rainwater channel and that could be the origin of those contaminations. Although she points out that the City Council "has not done anything yet" about those spills, Delgado warns that "they would be violating an environmental regulation."
"No remedy is possible, they have no permit"
The councilor signed those notifications last Friday, giving each of them 48 hours to leave the place, once they received them. According to the owner of one of these stalls, if they do not do so, the notification informs them that they would face fines exceeding 1,000 euros. After receiving the communication from the City Council, these merchants requested to remain there until Monday "to be able to spend the perishable food," Delgado has pointed out. Thus, they have "signed the commitment" to leave on Monday at noon.
According to the councilor, there has been "no prior measure" by the City Council, which has directly communicated to the owners of the stalls that they had to leave. "If they commit an irregularity, I cannot allow it to continue being committed," says the councilor. She also affirms that "no remedy is possible because they have no permit to be there." And she adds that, in case they do not leave, the City Council will send a "crane" or take the necessary measures, the costs of which must be borne by the owners of those stalls. According to her, if they want to reinstall there, they will not be able to do so, not even requesting that license, because in that area "there is no sanitation connection." Thus, they can only ask for permission from Commerce and install in the places that this department notifies them are "available."
"Where do I go now, at 64 years old and sick with diabetes?"
Roberto Rodríguez is one of the merchants of those stalls. He has intervened on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero explaining that he has "a candy house and a self-service bar" that he runs for 20 years. Of those two decades, he explains that he has been in that area for the last 12 years. Thus, although he does not deny that his permit was "provisional," he does not share the City Council's action and is even "thinking" about whether to abandon the place or resist the requirement. "That there is no (activity) license is your business, you call us, you regulate what needs to be done and that's it, but you can't give us a letter to leave here in 48 hours," he lamented.
"When we talk about 20 years, they should at least give me the option to put myself in another place," considers this man, who at 64 years old and "sick with diabetes" now fears for his "livelihood." Roberto Rodríguez maintains that some of those stalls, the last three to be installed, do have a license and cannot explain the City Council's decision. He assures that the City Council itself has "given us water and lately we also have electricity from the City Council" and that they pass "health inspections," also from the City Council, "every year."
For her part, the councilor affirms that these stalls "have water and electricity connections, but they are not authorized for it." Thus, she explains that it is necessary to first give a "permit for the installation and, once installed, they present the certificates and with that an inspection is done and then the authorization is given." "That is the last step, once the certifications have been verified. That could not be done because they do not even have a permit for the installation. They have the permit when it was given to them at the time for street vending, but it is for a specific time," she has reiterated.
Roberto Rodríguez, for his part, believes that the "problem" comes from recent works in the area in which "they broke everything." "Canal Gestión broke the canalization where our waters went and they now say that the waters go to the sea," he maintains. "I don't understand it, I don't know if it's that now they want to wash their hands of the El Reducto thing with us," he says, referring to those e-coli contaminations.
"Right now, what do I do at 64 years old, diabetic, sick? Here at least I have a livelihood," Roberto laments. This man explains that he remains daily at his post "from 6 in the morning until 11 or 12 at night." "And they tell me now to go home, after so many years," he reproaches them, while affirming that "we, the weak, the poor, always pay."
Two councilors have echoed his situation in the extraordinary plenary session this Thursday, convened to take note of the resignation of the former mayor, José Montelongo. The spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Delia Hernández, has reproached the City Council for demanding that they "evacuate out of the blue." "They are accused of the e-coli cases and I believe that they have not made any spills," she has added, while asking if "any technician has appeared there" after receiving the information from Canal Gestión about those spills. "We are talking about people and their livelihood," added Delia Hernández, who pointed out that these merchants have asked "the person in charge of the City Council to meet with them." In the same vein, the councilor Andrés Medina has expressed himself, who has considered that they should have been given "a hearing before sending the requirement" and has also asked what investigations Health has made about those spills.
