The Government of Spain is demanding that the residents of Caleta de Sebo, in La Graciosa, regularize the situation of the 246 square meters of state public land that have been occupied by private buildings on the island. To this end, the Treasury has informed citizens, in a prior requirement, that they must pay various amounts of money to resolve the situation. The total sum amounts to 400,000 euros.
In November 2016, the Teguise City Council requested the General State Administration to assess the possibility of carrying out "a new demarcation" in La Graciosa, after 40 residents were notified by the Treasury to pay various amounts of money for invading public land owned by the state.
The council alluded to "errors in the demarcation" and stated that it had topographical studies that confirmed these errors. In addition, it requested a return to the 1965 demarcation. However, the Delegation of Economy and Finance in Las Palmas requested the topographical studies from the council, but in three years it did not receive a response.
According to the documentation that La Voz has been able to access, the area required the City Council twice to deliver the studies, but in 2020 it had still not delivered them.
Also, in March 2018, the delegate of Economy and Finance of Las Palmas offered the Teguise City Council to carry out a joint inspection on the site. The City Council did not respond to this requirement either.
The senator for Lanzarote, Manuel Fajardo Palarea (PSOE), intervened this past Monday in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote to explain that he has advised residents to submit allegations to the economic requirement requested by the Treasury.
In this way, he has reported that some citizens, those who have to face the less substantial amounts, are considering paying what is requested by the tax authorities. "To everyone who asks me, I have told them to make allegations and explain in writing what has happened and if they can accompany it with the title of ownership, even better," Palarea pointed out.
"I don't think it's good to try to place the responsibility on someone who doesn't correspond. There is someone who regulated in his day part of some meters of land that did not correspond to him. That is recognized in the document that the City Council itself has sent to the national authorities. The phrase is used that things were not done entirely regularly, although things are done regularly or irregularly, but well," he added.
For the senator for the island of Lanzarote, the solution proposed by the Teguise City Council is "a little more complicated, more difficult". The council proposes the free transfer of the land to the City Council, so that it can then be transferred to the residents. Something that was already done with the houses of Valterra. However, in this case, it is state public land, so "any movement that is made in a non-clear way gives rise to claims from many points of the territory."
"We are going to try it by all means, both Pedro Viera himself and I are looking for a solution that, of course, means that the residents do not have to pay any amount of money, in any case, whoever caused the problem," he stressed. Fajardo Palarea has highlighted that this situation was caused because someone distributed on a map the land that did not correspond to them.
Regarding the situation of the different owners, he explained that "there are some lands that are not built on, others that are, some that are as housing, others that are not housing, but a small local. Some that have been the object of transmission to third parties, who are bona fide buyers, in short, everything."