The plenary session of the Teguise City Council has left on the table the sanctioning file that is being followed against the "illegal" market installed by Pedro Martín in La Villa. This Monday, the City Council held an extraordinary session at 9:00 a.m., in whose agenda one of the points was "agreements that proceed in relation to the sanctioning file of Classified Activities" that affects this market.
The Plenary had to ratify the measures proposed by the instructor of the technical report of the file that was opened against this market and that proposed its suspension "immediately" and a sanction for the former PSOE councilor Pedro Martín "in its maximum degree", of 30,000 euros, for a "very serious" infraction, with the aggravating factor of "intentionality", by "disobeying the warning" made by the City Council that he refrain from carrying out the activity.
The closure was already ordered by the mayor but this Monday the sanction also had to be approved, although it has finally been left on the table, without the City Council having explained the reasons so far. From the press office they have limited themselves to pointing out to La Voz that it has not been voted on due to a "formal issue".
"A crude way to mask the celebration of a private market"
This market opened on July 28 and from the first moment it was denounced by the Platform of Street Vendors and by merchants of La Villa, who warned that it was "illegal". The police carried out several inspections and issued a report in August in which it indicated that "nothing had been seen that made mention" of gastronomic fairs and the exhibition of textile and artisan products, which were supposedly being carried out in this enclosure. "It seems a crude way to mask the celebration of a private market within a municipal market", this report stated.
After two other reports against the market, the City Council ended up ordering its closure on November 5 for not having a classified activity license granted and for not conforming to the use of sociocultural equipment contemplated in the current planning. However, Pedro Martín reopened these stalls on December 1, as denounced at the time by the Platform of Street Vendors.
The latest police report is dated April 1, 2014 and it indicates that the activity that takes place in this place is "purely commercial without the need to make any value judgment", so the sociocultural use foreseen in the planning "is not complied with". Therefore, among other issues, the instructor of the technical report against this market resolved to grant Pedro Martín a period of seven days to vacate the premises and proposed a sanction of 30,000 euros, which had to be ratified in Plenary.