A Court in Arrecife postponed this past Tuesday the hearing of the oral trial for minor offenses against the more than 60 families (around 200 people) who occupy the abandoned skeletons of the Faro de Pechiguera. The reason for the postponement is that the complainant, the company Coral Homes SL, did not appear at the hearing. This is reflected in the documentation that La Voz has been able to access.
The new date of celebration has now been postponed until November. According to reports from the TSJC Communication Office, the case remains pending until the trial is held.
The occupants of Austria Street, mostly families who work in the hotels of Playa Blanca, are accused of a crime of usurpation for occupying a property. However, on the ground this property is not just a property, but a development of unfinished and abandoned houses by the real estate company Inversur Lanzarote SL.
The construction of the houses that occupy was halted in 2006 as it was planned in the surroundings of the Faro de Pechiguera, a 19th century lighthouse declared as an Asset of Cultural Interest. The promoting company tried to eliminate the protection measures of this element and to continue with the works, but the Justice gave a final blow to the case.
For almost 20 years, this unfinished work has become one of the concrete skeletons of the island of Lanzarote. Now, the lack of housing has led many families employed in the service sector to adapt the houses to live in them. According to data offered two months ago by the occupants, around 40 minors live on the property.
The lack of housing alternatives has led these people to even adapt the holes planned to create swimming pools to turn them into cisterns and have water.