The Councilor for Territorial Policy, Land Planning and Tourism Planning of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Jesús Alexander Machín Tavío (Canarian Coalition), spoke this Tuesday on the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote, on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero to explain what has happened with the photovoltaic plant that the Government of the Canary Islands authorized in Mácher and that Ecological Transition assured that "decayed" due to the lack of documentation.
The island official for planning has accused the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Canarian Government, led by Mariano H. Zapata (Popular Party) and his government partner on the island and in the Canary Islands, of "disloyalty", who relied on the controversial article 6 bis of the law regulating the Canarian electricity sector to declare its authorization of general interest.
"I was quite effusive when I protested, it's not the same to come through an ordinary procedure as to come through a 6 bis," Machín began during his radio intervention. This article states that "when there are justified reasons of urgency or exceptional interest", the Ministry may declare the works of general interest and submit them "to a special regime", which does not require "urban planning license or any other act of municipal or island preventive control".
"It is a tool that the electricity sector of the Canary Islands has that, due to the need for ecological transition, suspends your planning and you don't even have to give your opinion. That is what they did to us with the one in Mácher," continued the head of Territorial Planning.
"We protested, we were quite effusive and it stopped," he defended, "it stopped because we protested, not for anything else." Machín has continued denying the version of the regional councilor Mariano H. Zapata, who assured during an interview on Radio Lanzarote that the declaration of general interest "decayed" because the promoter of the project did not submit the documentation that was requested.
In contrast, the other photovoltaic parks that have requested authorization in the municipality of Tías depend on ordinary procedures. "Ordinary ones, if they clash with your island planning, do not go ahead", since "your island planning prevails. When it does not prevail is when they apply that tool to you, which is when I am afraid", he indicated. "That is why I am not worried about the others through the ordinary procedure, if it clashes with your planning, absolutely nothing happens, but when you go through the 6 bis we have nothing to do".
The Cabildo of Lanzarote has accused Ecological Transition of "not even" contacting the area to let them know that this solar plant in Tías had been declared of general interest. However, this procedure had to be ratified in the Governing Council and Machín has assured that his party, Canarian Coalition, told him that he was not going to accept.
Other islands, such as the neighboring Fuerteventura, have seen how article 6 bis is applied to build photovoltaic or wind plants on their lands, despite citizen opposition. "In Lanzarote there is a dispute over Las Caletas, which was given in its day by the 6 bis and we have gone against it in that sense," he concluded. "We are lucky that all the governments" of the island, regardless of political color, "think the same".
