The Heritage Councilor of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Ariagona González, has assured that declaring a property as BIC, as has been done with the Hotel Oriental, “does not mean that nothing can be done”, but emphasizes that the only thing it prevents is "demolition." “Trying to say that protecting heritage is demolishing it is a lie,” she pointed out on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero, responding to the press conference of the Popular Party last Tuesday.
“Protecting heritage is giving possibilities and help so that the owners of these assets can put them in value and, of course, make them profitable,” said the councilor, recalling that the owners of buildings with historical values have the “responsibility” to maintain them. In order for them to afford it, the councilor assures that they have requested the Arrecife City Council to modify the IBI of buildings with values, something that “they have not done”.
“It is very easy to blame another administration when they are not capable of exercising their powers,” criticized the councilor, also responding to one of the accusations of Jacobo Medina, who assured that the Cabildo “does not have an island catalog”. “Yes, we have it, and it is the PIOL catalog. Everything that has values in Lanzarote is included there,” details the councilor, who criticizes that the catalog of the capital's City Council “has many values that it does not include”. “If what you want is to help citizens and have a heritage that is worthwhile, it is to start working on it,” she adds.
Ariagona González has reviewed the situation of the Hotel Oriental, and goes back to 2014, when she maintains that the Arrecife City Council asked the Cabildo for collaboration to “identify which are the heritage buildings of the capital”, so that the City Council could create a catalog. In 2017 and 2019, they reported from the area that the Hotel Oriental had heritage values “that must be protected”. “It is not that the values of the Hotel Oriental have appeared now, they have been there since it existed. And the Arrecife City Council is aware of this situation,” explains Ariagona González.
González recalls that the property presented a project to the Heritage area of the Cabildo, which was rejected since they were not allowed to do certain things “because it would lose its values”, so they were informed “that it needed a modification.”
However, the councilor assures that the Arrecife City Council granted the license and the Heritage area was unaware that there was a new report that supported the modification of the initial one. “That is why we put a precautionary suspension, which was supported by technical reports,” justifies González, who adds that they requested the documentation from the City Council “up to three times”, and ended up receiving “the same project to which modifications had to be made.”
“Therefore, we cannot lift the precautionary suspension. Because we have to do it that way due to our powers, we have reports and we know that this building has heritage values and that it has a sufficient category to be a BIC,” says the councilor.
In relation to the accusations of the spokesperson for the Popular Party, Jacobo Medina, Ariagona González has pointed out that to say them “you have to go to the appropriate forum.” “If he considers that something is being done wrong, outside the law, he should go where he has to go, which is the courts. But constantly spreading fear, hoaxes and misinformation does us a lot of damage as a society,” criticized the councilor.
“Before making statements, they should read the files”
In addition to the initiation as an Asset of Cultural Interest to the Hotel Oriental, the Cabildo de Lanzarote has done the same with eleven other properties on the Island, initiating a total of 12. The Heritage councilor has assured that the press conference of the Popular Party was "regrettable", and reproaches them that before making statements, "they should read the files".
To explain it, the Heritage councilor of the Cabildo points out that there is a ruling of the Constitutional Court in which “it annuls an article of the old Historical Heritage law”, as there was no “de facto term in which the BIC procedure ended.” “That ruling throws out 156 Assets of Cultural Interest in the Canary Islands, 47 of them in Lanzarote,” explains Ariagona.
“The Government of the Canary Islands issues an order by which all those BICs expire in order to comply with the ruling of the Constitutional Court,” says the councilor, so she justifies that what they have done from the Cabildo is “exercise their powers”, which is to initiate those values “that meet the conditions to be a BIC.”
In addition, Ariagona González assures that of the 12 BICs that they have initiated in the week, “10 of them were already BICs, with the same protection environment of the same places, and with the same affections”. “That of us initiating BICs with malice and in a tortuous way is completely false,” affirms the councilor, responding to another of the statements made by Jacobo Medina at the press conference last Tuesday.
“We have to protect places like the Cactus Garden, the Jameos del Agua, the El Diablo restaurant, the Tahíche Lighthouse, César's house in Haría or the San José Castle,” points out the councilor, who reiterates that both in them and in their surroundings “certain things are allowed to be done, in each of them different”, and that she even points out that in some of the surroundings of a BIC “you can rehabilitate homes and also build up to a certain height.”