The spokesperson for Coalición Canaria in the Tías City Council, Amado Vizcaíno, has once again accused the socialist mayor José Juan Cruz of "favoring the construction of new hotels and thousands of tourist beds" in Puerto del Carmen through the III Plan for Modernization, Improvement and Increase of Competitiveness, during the extraordinary plenary session held this Thursday to approve the transfer of the document to the Government of the Canary Islands.
Vizcaíno justified the vote against this measure by the Canarian nationalist party “because this plan elaborated by the socialist government group does not respond to the need to carry out the renovation of the accommodation facilities in Puerto del Carmen, but to a covert modification of the urban planning by the PSOE to allow the construction of new hotels and thousands more tourist beds”.
The nationalist spokesperson pointed out that with the approval of this III PMMIC of Puerto del Carmen “the PSOE eliminates historical urban protections and favors the interests of certain businessmen, allowing tourist use in areas previously designated for residential use and thus demonstrating their hypocrisy when they talk about containing tourist growth”.
Tourist uses
Vizcaíno recalled that the General Plan of 2005 limited the tourist development of La Tiñosa, “which now comes to be considered land compatible with tourist uses, which will allow new hotel establishments, as in the planned action on Salinas street”.
Likewise, he denounced that “it contemplates actions in streets such as Roque Nublo, Teide or Bajamar that will facilitate the implementation of tourist apartments, as well as modifications in strategic plots on the first line of the coast, such as those located in Marte, Agonal or Harimaguada streets, where buildability is increased or changes are introduced that, in his opinion, “mean more cement and greater urbanistic pressure on the coast”.
The municipal spokesperson for CC also criticized that the document does not contemplate the definitive declassification of non-operational tourist beds, which will allow, he warned, that owners of tourist land can develop new establishments in the future by keeping available the quota of places set by PIOL 91.
Furthermore, Amado Vizcaíno also criticizes that the socialist government group “wants to sell as an achievement that the Plan reserves land plots for the creation of public housing, when in reality what it contemplates are three projects for the construction of 120 homes, of which 80 may be allocated to tourist villas, and only the remaining 40 could be public housing”.
Possible nullity of the Plan
Another of the aspects pointed out by Vizcaíno was the possible nullity of the Plan, by assuring that during its processing an action of public endowment on private land was included that could have generated incompatibilities within the governing group. “They have repeatedly refused to clarify whether this action was at the request of the owners or the City Council itself, as well as whether there was a conflict of interest in the vote,” he stated.
In this regard, he denounced the lack of transparency of the municipal government led by José Juan Cruz by not providing the legal reports requested by CC. “Given this refusal, we will resort to higher authorities to obtain said documentation,” he announced. Vizcaíno also maintained that the withdrawal of said action from the final document after the public complaint by Coalición Canaria “confirms that the Plan was flawed from the beginning,” which in his opinion “compromises its validity.”
The nationalist spokesperson concluded by pointing out that the approval of the Plan “is late”, after more than six years of processing, and that many of the planned actions have already been executed or are underway without the need for this instrument. “To modernize is not to build new hotels, it is not to prioritize tourist use over residential use nor to modify planning in favor of a few”, he stressed.
For all this, Amado Vizcaíno announced that Coalición Canaria will continue scrutinizing the development of the III Plan for Modernization, Improvement and Increase of Competitiveness of Puerto del Carmen and demanding information “about every strange movement” related to its application.
