Eugenio Hernández, representing the Arrecife Zona Centro Business Association, has filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office against the mayor, Cándido Reguera, for allowing the development of several street markets in the city.
In the document that Hernández has presented, it is explained that this group has already sent several complaint documents to the City Council for "the repeated non-compliance" of the regional legislation regarding street markets. However, these complaints, instead of solving the problem, according to this association, "have increased them." Therefore, it asks the Prosecutor's Office to investigate these facts "in case they could constitute a criminal offense."
In its writing, the group assures that the street markets "have seriously harmed the interests of traditional merchants in the area, endangering their existence and viability, given the growing unfair competition that is being generated, since in many cases they sell the same merchandise as the fixed-location commerce."
Ordinance "contrary to law"
Likewise, Hernández points out that the municipal ordinance regulating the street market and tourist activities in the municipality is "contrary to law", since "it does not conform" to the law on the regulation of commercial activity in the Canary Islands. "The mayor has been consenting to a repeated and voluntary non-compliance and violation of everything contained therein, and this knowing that the normative aspects of said ordinance are effectively violated," he states in the document presented before the Arrecife Prosecutor's Office.
For Eugenio Hernández, Cándido Reguera's only intention is to "favor the activity of street markets to the detriment of the traditional commercial sector in the central area of Arrecife." In this sense, he assures that the municipal ordinance establishes that the location of the Arrecife street market will be in the Ramírez Cerdá park on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. In addition, it indicates that the sale of food products will only be allowed when the hygienic-sanitary conditions established by current legislation are met.
"The truth is that the Mayor's Office repeatedly fails to comply with its own regulations, since in addition to the street markets that are held on Wednesdays and Thursdays in this park, another has been installed on León y Castillo street and its surroundings to the Church of San Ginés and has been extended to José Antonio street," he indicates in this writing. "These actions allowed by Cándido Reguera illegally violate what is indicated in the municipal ordinance," he denounces.
More street markets
Likewise, Eugenio Hernández has assured that the installation of other street market stalls is also being allowed on the days when cruise passengers arrive in Arrecife.
"This situation given and assumed by the current mayor of Arrecife is causing unfair competition to the traditional commerce of Arrecife, in addition to the disorder in the installation that hinders access to homes and certain businesses. It is illegally allowed that a specific and extraordinary activity becomes a habitual activity, harming the business sector with fixed locations," Eugenio Hernández states in his complaint before the Prosecutor's Office.
