FEHT reminds Puertos Canarios that a new concession for industrial use at the Santa Águeda quay is “not legally possible”

The Board of Las Palmas Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs Federation (FEHT) urged compliance with legal provisions regarding permitted uses of the Santa Águeda pier in Arguineguín, after the concession was confirmed to have expired, this Friday. for industrial use by a cement company.

For tourism entrepreneurs, compliance with the island land regulations is “inevitable”, which ensures the private tourist use of the pier and at the same time creates an opportunity for the development of quality activities in the best expansion area of ​​​​the municipality. San Bartolome de Tirajana. And according to this evidence, “mixed use of the port in question is excluded, as recommended by the regional government through the Puertos Canarios public agency.”

In this regard, the FEHT reminded all public administrations of their “obligations to guarantee legal certainty for economic actors and compliance with urbanism legality in this matter in order to defend the general interests of the municipality and the island”.

The tourism association specifically hints at the call of the Puertos Canarios board of directors next Monday, November 28, which includes an appropriate agreement for the processing and granting of a new industrial concession title for the occupation. Public domain in the port of Santa Águeda.

But emphasizing the same, FEHT “cannot ignore existing legislation.” For the reasons stated, granting a new industrial concession under the terms proposed by the general manager of Puertos Canarios would violate regional and urban planning, as the FEHT Board of Directors stated that “granting a new concession title is not possible to extend over time the existing industrial or commercial use of the port of Santa Águeda. ”, as this would clearly be contrary to the provisions contained in the existing island planning which allows for the mandatory conversion of the existing industrial or commercial port once. The concession on a sports and recreational facility in the service of new land uses designed by the Gran Canaria Island Planning Plan has expired.

The FEHT also warns that the procedural steps required in the proposal, which are already incompatible with island planning, were not followed, adding that it “is inappropriate to adopt an agreement, as proposed, conducive to the processing and granting of a new concession”. To the public legal entity about the concession requested without a report from the General Directorate of Industry of the Government of the Canary Islands, without the title, administrative file being processed, without following the promotion and public disclosure procedures, without examining the claims that can be made in these procedures, without including the mandatory report of the general manager in the file”.

In addition, it is not possible to grant a new concession for the port of Santa Águeda, referring to an alleged but strictly non-existent secondary relationship, because the “concession for industrial use” Dock has never had a legal connection with mining.” they state.

Finally, tourism entrepreneurs emphasize that granting a new concession directly to the cement company under the intended conditions “clearly violates the principles of promotion and competitive competition, which must be adhered to in the granting of all public concessions”.

For FEHT, it is not possible to propose a new concession “without complying with these principles” or to arrange “the relevant competitive tendering procedure in which all potential parties involved in the use and operation of port facilities can participate”.