A hotel, a commercial building, a sports equipment area, and car parks. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Council, governed by Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular, announced this week its plans for the Las Teresitas beach. The mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, informed through his Instagram account that he is ”unlocking the necessary urban planning” to transform this site and include walkways, sports leisure areas, and ”all the services to enjoy an environment of maximum environmental and scenic quality”.
The infographic accompanying his post shows how a commercial building, an urban park, and sports equipment areas will be created along the beachfront. Additionally, part of the space will be dedicated to public parking ”on the surface”. The largest area, shaded in yellow and located next to the mountain overlooking Las Teresitas, will have hotel use.
This announcement has raised alarms among local residents. Despite Bermúdez assuring that the goal is ”to keep it as the people’s beach, the beach for everyone”, comments on his post criticise the inclusion of a hotel in the plans. ”But why a hotel? Why don’t they keep the only beach that is reasonably in good condition for the people of Santa Cruz”, ”beach for the people, but the part that will grow most is the hotel use”, or ”the beginning of the end of a unique space” are some of the responses seen on the social media platform.
The Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN) has accused the Council of hiding information regarding this plot. The environmental organisation claims that the municipal corporation did not respond on time to documentation requested on February 27 regarding this matter, ”violating the right to access public information recognised in Law 12/2014 of Transparency in the Canary Islands”.
ATAN requested the complete file that would verify the ownership of the hotel plot proposed for Las Teresitas. ”Following administrative silence and lack of municipal cooperation, the entity appealed to the Commissioner, who ultimately ruled in favour of ATAN, ordering the Council to provide the requested documentation within 15 working days”, the association states.
The association considers this project as a ”new assault intended to be carried out on the island”. ”Another hotel, this time to serve tourism one of the municipality’s most popular locations, where local people and the rest of the Tenerife population enjoy leisure”, they criticise.
Furthermore, they lament that this project is being planned ”at the gates of Anaga, an absolutely congested natural space”. On June 13, local resident associations from Anaga submitted a document denouncing the ”serious access and mobility problems directly affecting the daily lives of the local population”. In this regard, the socialist group in the Cabildo has demanded ”specific measures” to alleviate traffic congestion in the Anaga Rural Park area.
The decision to reserve a plot for hotel use comes amidst a wave of protests in Tenerife over the overcrowding of the island. On May 18, thousands of people took to the streets in the capital to demand limits on tourism and greater protection of natural areas.
ATAN demands that the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Council does not block access to public information and acts ”with the transparency and diligence required by law”. ”We remind you that, due to crimes committed in this same area, Miguel Zerolo, former mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, was sentenced to prison for the Las Teresitas case”, the association points out in a statement. ”It represented a serious loss of more than 100 million euros to municipal coffers by paying nearly 52.5 million for land valued at 20 million”, they conclude.
The case of Las Teresitas dates back to 2001 and was one of the largest urban land deals in the Canary Islands. The Council purchased land worth 20 million for 52.5 million from businessmen Ignacio González and Antonio Plasencia. The aim was to urbanise the land with a shopping centre and a hotel.
The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Provincial Court and confirmed that there was a ”well-orchestrated scheme, precisely and carefully prepared, for a whole urban operation of land purchase by the Council at a price far exceeding its real value, resulting in severe detriment to municipal coffers”. The then-mayor, Miguel Zerolo, was imprisoned for abuse of power and embezzlement of public funds.
