The owners who have apartments in the south of Gran Canaria want the Government of the Canary Islands to clarify whether or not it is legal to live in a tourist area like Playa del Inglés. The Platform for People Affected by the Tourism Law has filed a complaint with the Provincial Council regarding the lack of response by the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council to their requests. The first deputy of the Common Council, Felipe Afonso, met with the president and vice president of this pressure group, Blas Padrón and María Isabel Doreste. The Common Council will process the Platform's complaint. "We know the complexity of this problem and how tourism was born in the south of Gran Canaria, with a very dispersed property; so it is an issue that must be studied in depth," Afonso pointed out.
Padrón and Doreste reported having presented to the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council a request for approval of a provisional ordinance, in order to clarify and establish the correct interpretation of the urban planning regulations of the General Municipal Planning Plan, in relation to the compatibility of residential and tourist use on plots classified as apartments or vacation homes. The group filed a complaint with the Common Council alleging that the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council refuses to answer and process their petition, which was accompanied by more than 6.000 signatures. "The City Council is abstaining from its legal obligations and is leaving us in a situation of helplessness," they denounced.
The representatives of the owners, some of them who market their properties directly, presented documentation to the City Council so that the supplementary Planning Plan could be modified and the compatibility of residential and tourist uses would come into force, since the intended project approve is the only document where it formally says that this use is prohibited in areas with tourist potential in San Bartolomé de Tirajana. "The City Council has already made minor modifications to the plan, but ours still has no response," Padrón said.
