The Supreme Court has rejected the appeals filed by the Government of the Canary Islands and the City Council of Tinajo regarding the maritime demarcation in La Santa. Thus, it has set this demarcation at 100 meters, something contrary to the claims of the Consistory, which has always maintained that La Santa was "an urban center" and, therefore, the public maritime-terrestrial domain had to be set at 20 meters.
The contentious-administrative chamber of the National Court of March 5, 2008, partially upheld the claim of the City Council of Tinajo and annulled the layout of the demarcation line approved by ministerial order in 2006. This order set the protection easement at 20 meters in the urban center of La Santa. However, the State Attorney's Office filed an appeal against the ruling, which claimed that it was not "in accordance with the law".
The Supreme Court has now sided with the State Attorney's Office, as it considers that La Santa was not an "urban area" before the Coasts Law of 1988. In this way, the Court rejects the agreement of the Canary Islands Territorial Planning and Environment Commission (COTMAC), which declared the population center of La Santa an "urban area".
This ruling by the Supreme Court has greatly angered the mayor, Jesús Machín, this Tuesday. "La Santa meets the conditions of an urban center, and perhaps the Government of the Canary Islands has not been able to explain it well. The Coasts Law is a disgrace. It is a disgrace that Coasts is against a town," Machín said. "On top of that, we don't have any Canarians who have the guts to defend us in the peninsula," he said on Radio Lanzarote.
"I'm angry. In the end, Tenésara is going to have a better solution than La Santa. Let those from Coasts go fry asparagus, because they are abusers of the towns, abusers. For the town of La Santa, I will fight with my last drop of blood, I will go to Europe and wherever it is necessary. Because it is the reason, I have already been poisoned in the morning. This is an abuse," he said.
"How do I explain to a neighbor that their house in La Santa is not legal and, yet, they see hotels built within the beaches?", "How do I do it?", Jesús Machín asked very angrily.
