Coastal regeneration is the responsibility of the State and should not be based on the opinion of citizens. This is the conclusion of the Supreme Court in an order in which it ratifies the impossibility of the Icod de los Vinos City Council, in the north of Tenerife, holding a popular consultation on what type of sand is wanted for San Marcos beach.
In this way, the Supreme Court agrees with the Council of Ministers, and points out that the responsibility of the municipalities focuses on cleaning and surveillance, but does not include the type of material that must be used in an engineering action.
The consultation that the Icod de los Vinos City Council wanted to make was going to include questions such as “what type of sand do you want the replacement to be carried out with; natural, crushing or ash from the La Palma volcano”, so they would fall under the concept of beach recovery, which is a state responsibility.
The City Council maintained the opinion that the power to present a report on its opinion regarding the actions carried out on the beaches would allow it to carry out this consultation.
In August of last year, the Government Subdelegation in Tenerife issued a report after consulting Costas, and established that for these reasons it was impossible to carry out a consultation whose result was intended to prevail over the technical criteria of the professionals.
After various studies, it was determined that the most optimal formula would be to provide the beach with larger sand, and in sufficient quantity to prevent the bottom material from being lost, so it would have to be crushed.
The objective is to distance future regeneration in time by already using natural sand, so that, according to the Supreme Court, this is a choice based on technical criteria and carried out by qualified personnel.
The local corporation appealed to the Supreme Court against the agreement of October 18, 2022 of the Council of Ministers, alleging that the Spanish Constitution allows the direct participation of residents in public affairs.
He recalled that the law guarantees that mayors, with prior plenary agreement by an absolute majority and with the due authorization of the central Government, can submit to popular consultation those matters of municipal and local jurisdiction that are considered of special relevance, except those of the local farm.
The Supreme Court indicates that the Coastal Law allows municipalities to have powers in matters of “cleanliness, hygiene and health”, which would conflict with the requirement that consultations be subject to matters of municipal responsibility.
The autonomous Government can carry out works and actions on the Canary coast when they are of general interest, assume the services provided in these enclaves in coordination with the town councils and issue prior reports on the execution of actions of general interest.
The Supreme Court even criticizes the way in which the file was sent to the Council of Ministers, which did not meet the required parameters.
