The precautionary stoppage of the works of the Cuna del Alma tourist project in El Puertito de Adeje is a measure questioned from the business sector. The general director of Spring Hotels, Miguel Villarroya, warns that the measure adopted by the Government of the Canary Islands It does not favor development on the Island. “It can seriously harm the credibility of the different administrations and, incidentally, the progress and well-being of Canarian society,” he said.
Miguel Villarroya believes that “It is necessary to find a balance between sustainability and investment, maintaining the ecosystem without cannibalizing the territory with excessive growth to achieve an optimal model that allows the coexistence and prosperity of our economy and society.”
That is the premise from which the general director of Spring Hotels starts, who, straight away, poses conditions: «But the possibilities have to be clear from the beginning. If you can, you can, and if you can’t, then you can’t, but there needs to be a clear position for all those involved”.
“It is necessary to find a balance between sustainability and investment”
In his reflection on the situation of the Cuna del Alma project, Villarroya recalls that «The El Puertito de Adeje Partial Plan is approved by the Urban Planning and Environment Commission of Canary Islands (Cumac) since 1998 and, in December 2021, the urbanization project is approved. With the approved plan and license for the project, we understand that the promoter has complied with the law.”. The problem comes later. In his opinion, “if the work is stopped now, what we are giving investors to understand is that there are no legal guarantees in the Canary Islands, and, honestly, I think that this is something that does not interest anyone and that can seriously harm the credibility of the different administrations and in passing to the progress and well-being of the Canarian society”.
In this line, leaders of the various employers have spoken. Both Pedro Alfonso, provincial president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), and his counterpart from the Provincial Federation of Construction Entities (Fepeco), Óscar Izquierdo, agreed that the stoppage of the works will have serious consequences for the economy and the job in Tenerife. They valued that this scares away investors from Tenerife and the Canary Islands, since the legal insecurity implemented by the administrations in the Archipelago is verified. Both attribute “an ideological and partisan interest” to the stoppage of the work, “an indefensible situation.”
Line in which Santiago Sesé, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Tenerife province, also spoke, who argued that “the lack of security generated by cases such as Cuna del Alma slows down the development of the Island and scares away investments.”
On November 11, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Fight Against Climate Change announced the precautionary stoppage of all work when specimens of a protected plant, the sad viborina, were detected. And on the 23rd, the Canarian Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment, also from the Canary Islands Government, initiated a disciplinary file against the promoter for lacking the project’s mandatory environmental impact assessment.
