Lanzarote En Pie in Arrecife has requested the appearance of the mayor, Astrid Pérez (PP) after the recent judicial ruling for the halting of the demolition license of the old Hotel Oriental. For the spokesperson of LEP, Leticia Padilla, this fact “proves" the arguments of her formation "and leaves in a complicated situation those who granted the license without any condition and ignoring the unfavorable technical reports”.
In a press release, the municipalists maintain that said ruling “reinforces the position that we have defended during all this time and leaves the administration led by Astrid Pérez in a grotesque situation.”
From LEP they remember that “the Arrecife City Council joined the contentious process that the real estate developer presented against the precautionary measure adopted by the Island Heritage inspection, which came to protect this historical and cultural asset of the capital from demolition.
In this framework, on February 1, the Contentious-Administrative Court No. 1 of Las Palmas issued a judicial ruling in which it considered proven that the historical-heritage values contained in the property justify the precautionary protection measure against the demolition license granted by the Local Government Board of Arrecife in September 2021”.
In this sense, the municipal spokesperson wanted to point out that “at the time I asked Astrid Pérez to act in favor of protecting the cultural heritage of the city and to invalidate the decision to demolish this emblematic building, to work on achieving an understanding with the property to maintain the cultural values within the project, since it would cause irreparable damage to the cultural identity of the city. There was no way, in fact, she appeared to the consistory as a co-defendant together with the real estate developer.”
Likewise, Padilla maintains that “given the mayor's obstinacy, I requested that the protection instruments established by law be activated from the city council in order to grant legal security to the property and allow it access to public subsidies to which it has the right to apply for the conservation of heritage values. It wasn't done.”
In this line, from LEP they point out that “in the sentence itself, now issued, it is pointed out that all the requirements demanded by law are met in order to adopt the precautionary measure of halting the project, since it was trying to avoid the beginning of works that could affect a property with architectural, cultural and historical values worthy of protection.”
Faced with this new context, Leticia Padilla has announced that they will request the appearance of the mayor, Astrid Pérez, to give the pertinent explanations on this matter. “We will ask her to explain why she deceived residents and owners in that famous meeting on April 4, in which she assured that she was forced by a judicial ruling to grant a demolition license. And of course, clarify what are the technical and political responsibilities that must be assumed and the economic cost that her personal battle against the cultural heritage of the city may entail for the City Council.”, Padilla sentenced.