The Administrative Court number 1 of Las Palmas annulled on September 6 the urban permits that the City Council of Teguise granted in 2001 and 2003 to the company Grupo Hoteles Playa for the construction of a six hundred-place hotel on plot 216 of Costa Teguise, next to the Playa Verde Hotel. The appeal against these permits was filed by the Cabildo of Lanzarote when Francisco Cabrera, of the Popular Party, was president.
The ruling confirms that the mayor of Teguise, Juan Pedro Hernández (Coalition Canaria), who remains in office, granted the permits that allowed the construction of the hotel to begin without the technical and legal reports of the municipal technical office or the report of the Cabildo. The Court describes these permits as null and void. The construction of the hotel was halted because in 2005 the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands suspended the license; and the concrete structure has remained visible on the plot.
"The absence of the reports cannot be considered as a simple cause of annulment, as the City Council claims in its response, but as an authentic total and absolute omission of the procedure that should lead to the declaration of nullity of the extension of the building permit granted by the resolution of the mayor of Teguise of November 29, 2001, nullity that should also reach the second challenged extension that would not have been granted if the first one did not exist," the ruling states.
This judicial resolution puts an end to a judicial process that has lasted five years. It is the last of the processes formulated by the Cabildo between 1998 and 2005 against illegal tourist licenses. All have been favorable to the Cabildo and have ended up annulling the licenses granted by the municipalities of Yaiza and Teguise. The courts have annulled nearly 13,000 tourist places, although more than 8,000 are in operation.
Hoteles Playa
The hotel was promoted by Grupo Hoteles Playa, the most important hotel group in Andalusia with more than twenty establishments, including the controversial Hotel Playa Senator in Marbella. The owner of the group is José María Rossell Recasens, former president of the Exceltur employers' association and husband of the senator and former president of the Popular Party of Almería, Mar Agüero. Grupo Hoteles Playa operates another hotel in Costa Teguise, the Playa Verde.
To build the now annulled hotel, Grupo Hoteles Playa obtained a subsidy from the European Union aimed at depressed areas of 1.6 million euros. In 2005, the company transferred the ownership of this hotel, obtaining a profit of 5.4 million, although with the condition of obtaining the definitive licenses before June 2010. As it has not obtained them, Grupo Hoteles Playa is obliged to transfer another hotel of its property to the buyer.
Rossell is a businessman linked to the Party of Independents of Lanzarote (PIL), the party to which the mayor who granted him the license belonged at the time (today he belongs to Coalición Canaria). Rossell was a partner in the official newspaper of the PIL 'El Maho' and 'Televolcán', coinciding on the boards of directors with members of the PIL, such as the daughter of Dimas Martín, Susana Martín, and the former president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María José Docal, arrested in Operation Jable.
Arrested
Rossell himself was also arrested last April by the Civil Guard in this operation, along with the financial director of Grupo Hoteles Playa, José Gonzalo Gil Acosta. After almost eight hours of testimony, the judge charged them with a crime of money laundering and/or punishable insolvency.
The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard considers that Rossell may be a key piece in Dimas Martín's network to hide his properties or his economic interests. The investigation of Operation Jable considers that Martín could have assets of eight million euros through various frontmen.
ACN
