The Councilor for Ecological Transition and Territory Management of adejeManuel Luis Méndez, has replied this Monday to his counterpart in the Government of the Canary IslandsJosé Antonio Valbuena, which is the regional administration, in any case, the one that should assume eventual compensation to the promoter of Cuna del Alma.
In statements to Cope Canarias collected by Efe, Méndez has defended the administrative acts emanating from the local corporation regarding the processing of this project in the Puertito de Adeje, that they are “adjusted to law” and are “endorsed by technical reports” from the house and external.
And he added that the administration that has resolved to temporarily halt the project or the possible annulment of “procedures carried out”, in reference to the Government of the Canary Islands, is the one that would have to “assume patrimonial responsibility. There are already several precedents in Canary Islands“, he finished.
Manuel Luis Méndez has considered “totally disproportionate” the precautionary stoppage of works when the presence of the sad viper is limited to “2% or 3%” of the surface, and he has opined that Councilor Valbuena is acting with a technical criterion, but also of political opportunity in the face of the social rejection caused by this project.
The mayor of Adeje has indicated that there is “a technical discussion” between the two administrations, where “the discrepancy” arises around the Mandatory or not of an environmental impact study strategic in the urbanization project (the construction of roads, not the proposed villas and hotel), which is what is authorized and was being carried out until the precautionary stoppage of the works.
In the City Council they consider that this impact study is not necessary since the modification of municipal planning that concerns the area of the Puertito de Adeje already had this tool, mandatory in this procedure that was endorsed by the Canary Islands Territory and Environment Planning Commission (Cotmac) in 2018.
In that impact study, the councilor explained, all protected species are collected and how to act in the event that “some incident” occurs, as has happened with the sad viper.
Méndez has disagreed with the counselor’s statements that this species cannot be transplanted – “this must be analyzed”, he said -, and, in any case, he has stressed that the Cuna del Alma urbanization includes a section of a structural road , planned since 1980 in the subsidiary rules of Adeje, and which the legislation opens the door to the “translocation” of plants in the case of actions of public and priority interest.
He has also called it “a bit surprising” and has expressed his “outrage” that the promoter communicated to the Government of the Canary Islands the presence of about 50 or 60 specimens of the sad viborina in the lands where work is being done and asked for clarification on how to proceed, but two months went by without an answer.
Of course, he continued, when Salvar la Tejita denounced the presence of this protected species Six days later, government biologists came to verify this point.
The councilman of Adeje has also slipped that the technicians in which the Government of the Canary Islands has relied on to stop the works in a precautionary way They are “the same”, or at least “the fundamentals” that in 2018 endorsed the modification of municipal planning in Cotmac remain.
Finally, he has anticipated that the license that will be granted to the promoter in the future to build the villas and the hotel They would not require an environmental impact study either, since with the habilitation of roads the land becomes urban.
What should be done, he continued, is a follow-up, based on the already existing impact study, in case any species that had not been detected then was detected.
