Seven years after allocating 1.6 million euros of public money to buy the Fermín house, the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, has now asked from the opposition to modify the degree of protection of this property, since the planning of Arrecife does not allow the use for which this purchase was announced, which was the creation of an archaeological museum. In fact, in these years not only has that project not been executed due to lack of permits, but also no intervention has been carried out in the main part of the property, which has deteriorated due to lack of maintenance.
Now, after having left the government, Coalición Canaria will once again bring this issue to the next Plenary Session of the Cabildo, with a motion proposing that the Arrecife City Council be urged to proceed, "either to the specific and minor modification of the General Plan, and more specifically of the degree of protection in the file of the building listed with number 7 in said Plan, or to the modification of said catalog through municipal provisional ordinances for reasons of social interest".
In this way, they argue that it could "unblock the authorization to the necessary interventions" in the house, where the government of San Ginés had committed an expenditure of 5 million euros between the purchase, the works that were carried out in two lateral warehouses -which are the only ones that have opened their doors- and a part of the pending works in the main building. The latter only cover the rehabilitation of the property, which had serious structural damage that was not analyzed before making the purchase, and then another project would still have to be added for the transformation into a museum.
Appeals to a report from more than a year and a half ago
Although CC acknowledges in its motion that the current planning does not allow that use, it also insists that "there is no impediment to continue with the project" and refers to a report requested by San Ginés himself when he was still president of the Cabildo. That report, which he himself made public a few days ago, is actually dated July 2018, although he did not make it known then.
"Both the Cabildo and the president have a clarifying report requested by the first institution from the Department of Territorial Policy of the Government of the Canary Islands, to indicate the procedure to follow to modify the Architectural Catalog of the General Plan of Arrecife Basic Adaptation, in order to promote an Insular Archaeological Museum in that property without altering the values of the property", says CC, which governed in the Cabildo when it received that opinion and with it it did not manage to unblock the project either, since it does not even depend on the Island Corporation.
In that report of the General Directorate of Urban Planning of the Canary Islands, the steps that the City Council could take to allow the use as a museum of that property are indicated, which was acquired for that purpose under the mandate of San Ginés despite the fact that its use was and still is currently residential. In this regard, CC also refers to the steps they tried to take after the purchase of the house and during the six years that they continued to govern, but with which they did not manage to authorize that use.
"The project was received with great enthusiasm in Heritage"
In his statement, San Ginés once again places the responsibility for this purchase on the head of Heritage of the Cabildo, María Antonia Perera, insisting that he ordered that acquisition at the "proposal" of the technician. However, the investment was questioned unanimously by the entire opposition at the time, further increasing the controversy the fact that the property belonged to the family of Pedro San Ginés' former partner.
"This is a project that was received with great enthusiasm by the Heritage department, which has always worked to try to overcome the difficulties with which the materialization of any project is found, and that is exactly what a responsible government should do with all its projects, instead of looking for all kinds of pretexts to undo them for pure political revanchism", says CC in its press release.
The nationalists are thus addressing the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, who has publicly stated that it is not even possible to establish an Archaeological Museum in said property because it is protected and the municipal planning prevents it, which confers on it an exclusively residential use. However, seven years after ordering its purchase and only a few months after leaving the government, CC insists that "this does not pose any impediment to the completion and opening of the definitive project of said museum in the main building of the property".
