The Cabildo of Lanzarote has ordered this Thursday precautionary measures to prevent the start of works on the building of the old Oriental hotel, thus suspending the license granted the previous day by the Arrecife City Council.
The Heritage area of the Island Corporation had already issued an unfavorable report on the project more than two years ago, and now they have requested the documentation from the City Council to know the scope of what was approved this Wednesday at the Arrecife Governing Board.
The tool used by the Cabildo is within the legal powers that both the Corporation and the Government of the Canary Islands have, to stop an intervention that they consider may threaten the Heritage. And although its validity is limited in time, being able to reach a maximum period of six months, its entry into force is immediate.
For its compliance, the Cabildo has already sent this order to both the City Council and the property, notifying them that they cannot start the works.
Requests the complete file from the City Council
The Cabildo appeared a year ago in the municipal file opened since 2017 in the Arrecife City Council, but from the Island Corporation they affirm that they do not know what has been approved exactly and have requested the City Council to send a complete copy of all that file in a "non-extendable" period of 10 days. From there, Heritage will re-analyze the license, to determine if what is authorized is the same as what it opposed in its day, or if modifications have been introduced in the project, something that the Cabildo is not aware that has happened.
Among other things, Heritage already warned in 2019 that the project would mean the disappearance of important heritage values, since it involved the demolition of the interior of the building. In addition, it pointed out that this building is "one of the most relevant exponents of the architectural heritage" of Arrecife. In fact, they also urged the City Council to include it in its municipal Architectural Catalog, but the City Council still does not even have that document, despite it being a legal obligation.
Precisely in that absence of official protection the government group of Arrecife has based itself to grant the license to the promoters, following the criteria of its municipal technicians, who maintain that the report of Heritage of the Cabildo "is not binding".
However, both the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands defend that even if there is no Catalog or it is not completed, the administration knows that there are a series of values in that building and has an obligation to protect them. "What cannot happen is that the inaction of an administration causes the destruction of a heritage asset," they point out.
A controversial vote
As La Voz reported this Wednesday, the license was approved in the Governing Board of Arrecife with divided opinions within the partners of the pact. The councilors of the PSOE and Nueva Canarias issued a favorable but "conditional" vote, asking that the license not enter into force until 15 days after being notified to the Cabildo, precisely so that the Corporation would have room to adopt precautionary measures if it deemed necessary.
However, that position was not accepted by the PP, which had the support of the councilor of Somos Lanzarote, Eli Merino. "Our vote, not getting the proposal out, translates as an abstention," the socialist councilor Cristina Duque told La Voz. For her part, the mayor, Ástrid Pérez, later assured in a statement that the license had been approved "unanimously" by all members of the Governing Board.
In any case, the Cabildo has finally decided to act before receiving the notification of the license, ordering its paralysis and leaving it for now without effect, until the authorized project is re-analyzed by Heritage.
