The Cabildo of Lanzarote has reported that "four favorable reports endorse today the initiation of the old Hotel Oriental of Arrecife as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC)", for its part, "each of which corroborate the outstanding heritage values that the building houses".
"When a BIC is initiated, it is mandatory to request only two reports from the advisory bodies established by the Canary Islands Cultural Heritage Law. These reports must clarify whether the property on which the file is initiated meets the requirements to be declared a BIC", they explain from the first Island Institution.
“We will not hesitate to exercise our powers”
“While it is only mandatory to have two reports, we have requested three and all of them agree that the old Hotel Oriental located on Calle Real in Arrecife has the historical and heritage values required to be declared a BIC, proving the Cabildo de Lanzarote right,” says the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo.
"In addition, a fourth report was requested, not mandatory, from the Heritage Inspection of another Cabildo of the Canary Islands, whose opinion coincides with the previous three", Corujo points out.
In light of these "forceful reports", the president considers "the unfounded controversy encouraged by the Arrecife City Council regarding this initiation" to be over, since the City Council "has always been well aware of the existence of outstanding heritage values that justify the initiation of this historic building as a BIC.”
The Canary Islands Cultural Heritage Law attributes to the island councils the power to initiate and instruct the declaration procedures for BICs, elevating them to the Government of the Canary Islands for resolution. "Therefore, we will not hesitate to exercise our powers in defense of historical and cultural heritage," emphasizes María Dolores Corujo.
"Arrecife insisted on granting a building permit"
For her part, the Councilor for Historical Heritage of the Cabildo, Ariagona González, recalls that the old Hotel Oriental "has been part of several Municipal Catalogs in recent decades." She also reiterates that, prior to the initiation, the Historical Heritage Service of the Cabildo "communicated on numerous occasions to the Arrecife City Council the existence of values in the aforementioned property, without it acknowledging it."
The councilor insists that, "despite our warnings, the mayor of Arrecife insisted on granting a building permit to a project that would have involved emptying the interior of the building, and which was negatively reported by the Historical Heritage Service of the Cabildo."