The Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN) announced on Wednesday that a fresh judicial ruling, issued by the Contentious-Administrative Court number 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, deems the Environmental Impact Declaration for the Granadilla Motor circuit to be null and void.
The environmental organisation views this ruling as a “new setback” for the initiative, prompting it to call on the Cabildo de Tenerife to halt the construction as the complex “lacks the legal basis to proceed.” According to ATAN, the judge has established that “the work did not commence within the timeframe set in the declaration,” rendering the entire project invalid from an environmental standpoint.
The group elaborates that “despite the attempts by Tenerife’s insular council to justify the initial ground movements and vegetation clearing as the commencement of work, the judge has concluded that the actions conducted prior to November 2016 were minimal, non-structural, and lacked sufficient substance to be considered valid for legal compliance.”
In his view, “they were a mere façade to create the illusion that the work had begun when it never actually did.”
ATAN, the proponent of the appeal, celebrates this ruling as “a triumph for legality and the protection of the territory”, but warns that “the damage to the land is already occurring, and the inaction of the insular authority to halt the work is both irresponsible and concerning.”
ATAN stresses that this is the second ruling against the project. It adds to declarations like that of the Ombudsman, which stated that “the Cabildo de Tenerife endorsed the motor circuit with an expired impact report.”
“How long will the influencer currently presiding over the Cabildo de Tenerife and his team permit the exploitation of the island’s land?” the organisation questions.
The organisation further remarks that although the judgement disassembles the arguments posited by the Cabildo and acknowledges the expiration of the Environmental Impact Declaration (an essential document for the project’s development), “the machinery continues to relentlessly damage the ecosystems in the south of Tenerife present in the area.”
In this regard, it highlights that the motor circuit “is still progressing, obliterating habitats and territory through heavy machinery, with the unanimous institutional backing of all council groups, despite being an expired project, environmentally unsustainable, and socially untenable, which elucidates the accelerated degradation experienced by the island and the level of ignorance and institutional disregard towards Tenerife.”
For ATAN, “this latest ruling demonstrates that the protection of the territory is not a mere whim, but a legal and moral necessity. We urge the insular council to immediately cease all construction and to cancel this project which is both harmful and unnecessary, permanently.”
