The Councilor for Territorial Policy of the Cabildo assures that the decision of the TSJC against the Consistory presided over by his colleague Juan Pedro Hernández will not influence the relations of the current government group

Espino says that "it is not yet time" to request the demolition of the Costa Teguise hotel linked to the PP senator

The Councilor for Territorial Policy and Environment of the Cabildo, Carlos Espino, assured this Wednesday that "it is not yet time" to request the demolition of the framework of the Costa Teguise hotel ...

November 9 2005 (23:12 WET)
Espino says that "it's not time yet" to request the demolition of the Costa Teguise hotel linked to the PP senator
Espino says that "it's not time yet" to request the demolition of the Costa Teguise hotel linked to the PP senator

The Councilor for Territorial Policy and Environment of the Cabildo, Carlos Espino, assured this Wednesday that "it is not yet time" to request the demolition of the framework of the Costa Teguise hotel linked to the senator of the Popular Party (PP) María del Mar Agüero who once threatened to sue the general secretary of the Canarian Socialist Party (PSC), Manuel Fajardo, for relating her and her husband to an urban operation that had to do with the Party of Independents of Lanzarote (PIL) and with a local television now disappeared. Although a few weeks ago he advanced that he was going to maintain contacts with Teguise tending to look for formulas that could allow to recover a plot that presents a regrettable aspect as a consequence of the voluntary paralysis of the works by the promoter, the news arrived from the courts of justice has made him change his mind. "At this moment we have a precautionary paralysis of the works and now we will have to wait for the definitive ruling, and although we are convinced that the Cabildo is right, it is not time at this moment to request the demolition of what there is", he said concisely.

It must be remembered that last Tuesday it was known that the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has agreed to suspend the extension of the urban license that the City Council of Teguise granted to a company for the construction of a five-star hotel with capacity for 470 places in that plot, the 216 of the Partial Plan of Costa Teguise. Espino valued with "enormous satisfaction" during his intervention in the program Buenos Días Lanzarote de Radio Lanzarote the decision of the High Court and that sentences or orders favorable to the territorial policy of the Cabildo continue to occur. "I would like to remember, to avoid manifestations from those who spoke of the Cabildo filing lawsuits indiscriminately or that it was behaving with tremendous recklessness, that the courts are gradually leaning towards the side that we believed it had to do", he remarked, recalling that the matter already came from the time when they were in the opposition in the First Island Corporation, at the beginning of the legislature. "The curious thing is that the judicial processes were opened and the works were not paralyzed, not even in cases as clear as this. That is why we gave a press conference demanding the paralysis of the hotel and revealing the connections that in our opinion existed", he explained, pointing out, as an anecdote, that the famous lawsuit with which the Almeria senator threatened has not appeared anywhere. "Either it was filed in Almería or they made a mistake and sent it to Zimbabwe, because it has not arrived here", he ironized.

The head of the department that monitors from the Cabildo something as complicated as the balance between the territory and sustainable development considers that the fact that the promoter himself has paralyzed the works without a court order is significant, and shows that "sometimes it is more sensible not to continue with the investments". "There are those who have bet on reaching the path of accomplished facts, and we will see what consequences it has, because this island is not willing to swallow anything through the path of accomplished facts", he stressed.

Influence on the pact

At this moment some citizens and some parties could think about what could erode the decision of the courts of justice the relationship of the pact that sustains the Cabildo, more than anything because one of the parties involved is represented by the mayor of Teguise, Juan Pedro Hernández, who is in turn a councilor of the current government group of the First Island Corporation. However, Espino has no doubt, hence he affirmed that "not at all" do things have to be related to each other. Likewise, he took the opportunity to question how unusual it is that the PSC is accused on the one hand of breaking the health of the pact for doing its urban duties with Teguise and on the other of focusing all its urban struggle policy in Yaiza. "Neither one thing nor the other; we fulfill our duty, which is what we are at this moment in the government group, as we did when we were in the opposition. From this moment on, the imagination is free, especially that of those who would like to see themselves again sitting on the side that they consider they should never have lost at the Cabildo table", he commented in obvious reference to the PP.

Pending processes

The Councilor for Territorial Policy advanced that at this moment and with a "more or less immediate" character, to be resolved before the end of the year, there are other four important judicial processes that have to be resolved and that are directly linked to the moratorium, four processes that are going to come in the same line that was followed in the case of the Iberostar hotel. "Resources have been filed as we learned about the licenses, and as they have been filed on the same dates and the Chamber has requested the conclusions more or less at the same time, we have a forecast that this frequency of communications will occur", he indicated.

To reject once again the criticisms that have been made from parties interested in combating the Cabildo's policy, he clarified that not a single lawsuit has been lost against badly granted licenses, and those that have to do with the moratorium have only lost the one of Montaña Roja and another procedure that also has to do with the issue of compensation provisions. "We expect about eight more sentences linked to the issue of compensation, as we also know that at that moment another boast will be made against the Cabildo when everyone knows that it is the same procedure and that it was the Government of the Canary Islands that eliminated from the document the compensation provision that had been contemplated", he concluded finally.

Most read