This Tuesday, the Canary Islands Coalition has asked the Parliament of the Canary Islands to deliver a copy of the legal opinion regarding the term of the concession of the Port of Santa Águeda, issued by Francisco José Villar Rojas, professor of administrative law, on behalf of the then Public Works and Transportation of the Government of the Canary Islands when the nationalists ruled. The Brazilian-Asturian cement company Ceisa is located on this surface. Article 47 of the Canary Islands Land Law states that "in particular, consolidated urban land that is included in reform or renewal actions of the urbanization, as well as in provision actions, will, for management purposes, be considered "unconsolidated urban land with the singularities and particularities established by law." But this has nuances because it goes into the substance of the Civil Code when it is mentioned that when there is "a pretext of silence, obscurity or insufficiency of the Laws, liability will be incurred."
Villar Rojas, who was the drafter of the Land Law, has specified that, while the island planning was definitively approved by the Government of the Canary Islands, it is bound by its decision, from which it cannot be separated and the dispensation or singular repeal of its content. The solution proposed by the Government of the Canary Islands for the port of Santa Águeda, a shared tourist-industrial use to freeze for at least six years the conflict between the hotel employers and the Asturian-Carioca company of El Pajar, was already flatly rejected in the report legal-administrative prepared by two experts from the University of La Laguna, the professor of Administrative Law Francisco José Villar Rojas and the professor of that department Andrés González Sanfiel, as reported by La Provincia in August 2022.
The legal and external opinion commissioned by the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Las Palmas (FEHT) on the situation of the Port of Santa Águeda, in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, was made public on December 31 and determines that the industrial use It is incompatible with the Gran Canaria Island Planning Plan (PIO), which provides for this infrastructure as a tourist destination and, specifically, for nautical and sports use. The concession for the industrial use of the port expired in March 2020, 63 years after the original authorization and its exploitation is currently precarious.
The author of the report is the professor of Administrative Law at the University of La Laguna, Francisco Villar Rojas, together with professor Andrés González Sanfiel, concludes that the continuity of the industrial use of the aforementioned port is unfeasible and there is no room for any extension of the concession with the that has been working. The current regulations establish the relocation of the cement factory where it must be transferred, which implies the elimination not only of the landscape impact produced by the current installation but also the emissions and noise derived from an industry of these characteristics.
The transfer of the cement plant is valued as an opportunity that generates a “landscape improvement that involves eliminating the facilities of the Arguineguín cement plant” or the “elimination of emissions due to the disappearance of the cement plant,” in accordance with island planning. The port administration would be obliged to recover the port and decide how to manage it, either directly or through public bidding. Likewise, the PIO is mandatory for all public administrations and individuals and prohibits the industrial use of the port, in accordance with the changes generated in the Land Law and Protected Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands.
