The mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, has acknowledged this Monday that the family that took the City Council to court, accusing it of occupying land of their property in El Cuchillo, "surely is right." Machín's statements come after the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, advanced this Monday by La Voz, which has partially upheld the claim of this family. Among other things, the ruling obliges the City Council to respond to its request for compensation and to clarify whether the occupied land was actually owned by the City Council or not.
The plaintiffs maintain that in 1990 they sold 2,000 meters of land to the City Council, segregating them from a larger farm, but that what was actually occupied with public facilities was more than 7,000 square meters. "Surely they will have taken more meters," Machín has admitted, who nevertheless assures that it does not reach the figure that the family points out.
On that land, the plaintiffs maintain that the school, equipment, public park and road endowment are included. The mayor, for his part, has assured that "there is a confusion there", because "it is true that the General Plan contemplates an urban park next to the court, but that has not been taken much less". According to Machín, that land was "rustic" but, when the General Plan was approved, "an urban park is placed there". That is to say, the use of that land has been changed to allocate it to another public facility, but he insists that it has not been executed for the moment. "With that I do believe that the man is right and they are 7,000 meters, but that is not taken", he reiterated, stating that "when the urban park is taken, it will be paid, if it is taken one day".
"What has been taken more, then it is paid"
In any case, the mayor of Tinajo has assured that he is "the first one who wants to clarify" the issue with the plaintiffs, because the City Council has been "years with this issue". "What has been taken more, even if it was in its day, then it is paid", he reiterated. As a result of the ruling, he has stated that he will meet "with the technician and the lawyer" and has promised to "explain everything" once he has done so.
Precisely that is what the TSJC ruling demands, which reproaches the City Council for not responding in its day to the request of this family, when in 2012 it addressed the City Council asking that this land be expropriated, in order to obtain the corresponding compensation, given that it had already been occupied. For this reason, the ruling concludes that the City Council had the "obligation to give a definitive express response as to whether or not the occupation of privately owned land had occurred" and establishes that it must now "respond" to the request and clarify whether it "occupied land belonging to others" without carrying out the corresponding procedure. In addition, it adds that in the event that this is the case, it must compensate the family. In total, the sum requested by the plaintiffs amounts to more than 1.7 million euros.
"If we buy 2,000 and there are 4,000, we will have to pay that", said Jesús Machín, who insists that the amount of land occupied does not reach the 7,207 meters claimed by the family. In addition, although the school was built under his mandate, Jesús Machín has defended that the possible occupation of land that did not belong to the City Council occurred before, with the first facilities that were built on that plot. Specifically, he has referred to a sports court executed under the Mayoralty of Luis Perdomo, which he affirms is "what is in doubt".
"When I arrived, the court and everything was already built. When I arrive, I build the school and I build it within the meters that the City Council had bought", Machín defended in the program La Destiladera of Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero. However, he has stated that he has "no problem" in compensating the family if it is finally proven that they are the owners of the land. "What is ours is ours and what is not, is paid, that is clear to me", said the mayor.
