Following the controversy reignited by the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, which has publicly reiterated its intention to build a hotel on Las Teresitas beach, the Councillor for Security, Zaida González (PP), has made a social media post to clarify the plans of the council, led by José Manuel Bermúdez (Coalición Canaria) alongside the PP, for the area.
In the video, González warns users not to be “misled” by those whom she claims have lied about the council’s plans for the beach. She stresses that only what the San Andrés residents and the Anaga area need will be built on the parcel that triggered the controversy, such as “a health centre… a shopping centre…”.
However, although she acknowledges that the parcel has a “touristic, hotel” use, the video does not explain to the citizens the council’s intention to build a hotel with 500 beds on it. In fact, the hotel is not mentioned, even though it is included in the draft plan for the area, issued in July 2024, and which this newspaper has accessed. This document proposes a hotel with a maximum of 500 beds, underground parking, and tram access for this site. According to the council’s text, the aim is to “satisfy the undeniable public interest in this significant enclave,” not to meet the needs of the residents, as the PP councillor aims to convey.
The responses from users have overwhelmingly opposed the construction of a hotel. If what the councillor says is true, that what is done in the beach area will meet the needs of local residents, they indicate what should be built there, instead of a shopping centre: a seniors’ centre.
This is, as numerous messages directed at the councillor explain, a need for the neighbourhood, especially “for the elderly in La Ladera who, after reaching a state of dependency, become isolated in the mountain, unable to come down to their village, unable to remain there, and must be moved to residences far away, spending their final years where neither they nor their relatives want to be… It is very sad not to be able to bring your relative down from La Ladera, and even sadder to have to take them away from their village…,” recounts one of the messages.
Another user comments: “I believe that a centre adapted for all the elders, not just those from San Andrés but all those from the islands, need a large recreational centre where they can enjoy their old age. I think it would be a great project.” In the same vein, another user believes that “the village of San Andrés does not need a shopping centre, nor a hotel complex, use them for our elders, always with common sense, they deserve it.”
More clearly opposed to the hotel and the project for the shopping centre, a user points out: “We need our elders to be cared for, we need not to be ‘forced’ to leave due to being unable to access housing, we need to be able to go to our jobs calmly without having to set off hours earlier just in case I encounter traffic or a bus that is completely overcrowded, we need a little less concrete and asphalt and more promotion of natural and ‘virgin’ areas, we need to preserve our well-being and tranquillity.” She adds: “I believe that the whole wave of criticism that has come their way makes clear what the people want, which is a resounding no to building a hotel and a commercial area in such a genuine and special little village as San Andrés.”
The numerous messages against the project are clear: “We do not want a hotel nor a shopping centre there”, “The village does not want a hotel, that’s clear!!!”, “Do you know the story of the wolf… well, it’s the same. WE DO NOT WANT ANOTHER HOTEL”, “Don’t let us be deceived, she says… That’s what we’re doing. Not another hotel!”, “WE DO NOT WANT A HOTEL NOR A SHOPPING CENTRE. WE WANT POLITICAL CLASS AT A HIGHER LEVEL. GET TO WORK ON A CHANGE OF MODEL.”
Another user wonders if the village of San Andrés needs a hotel. And responds: “It doesn’t make sense – build houses and a health centre and you’ll see that no one opposes.”
Another user recalls that the hotel is not a new idea and criticises the removal of parking spaces on the beach: “It’s the same project that the former mayor had, why deceive ourselves? If they want to improve, solve the parking issue in the area as they keep removing more and more and want to build a hotel? Well, I don’t know where they’re going to put so many vehicles. Do you want to improve the area? Well, fix the beach and use the land for a centre for the elderly and an urgent care centre in suitable conditions, which is needed, and create green spaces. And listen to the people, not the cronies of the moment.”
One of the most forceful messages comes from a user who remembers that the residents of the area already opposed the hotel years ago when this project was first mentioned and lists what are, in her opinion, the true needs of the area: “Will what the Anaga area needs be built? That’s what the video says, right? Well, it needs not to be laughed at by its people, to care for its elders and not condemn them to live isolated and abandoned. The infrastructures, sanitation and roads in Anaga are a disgrace. The neglect is tremendous; one only needs to take a walk or try to go there during the weekend to see that they don’t even care about enforcing regulations… blocked roads preventing residents from moving, the neighbours have been raising alarms about the danger this poses in case of an accident. The village of San Andrés lacks many things, one of which is parking for even its residents, and they’re bringing up the idea of the hotel again. It is clear that they really don’t care what the people of Anaga want or need, because that idea was already rejected at that time. The council clearly shows with this action that when it wants something, it does it, and if it cannot at that moment, it will try again later ‘selling’ it in a more attractive way. Do they want a Playa de Las Américas in Santa Cruz? Anaga, Biosphere Reserve, says no,” she concludes.
The mayor’s announcement
“After years of waiting, we are finally on the path to transforming Las Teresitas while maintaining the goal of it remaining the people’s beach, the beach for everyone.” It was the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez (Coalición Canaria), who announced the council’s project for the beach on June 30 via his Instagram account. In the post, he added an infographic showing the different uses planned for the Las Teresitas area: a shop, an urban park, surface public parking, an area for sports facilities, and a plot for hotel use. However, following the flood of criticism of the proposal, the corporation responded by asserting that this plan is only “a draft.”
ATAN (Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature) has classified this project as a “new assault that is intended to be executed on the island.” “Another hotel, in this case to serve tourism in one of the municipality’s most popular places, where local people and the rest of the Tenerife public enjoy leisure,” they critique.
The Canary Association of Environmental Consultants (AECCM) has also opposed it, arguing that designating public land at Las Teresitas for hotel use, shopping centres and landscaped areas, as proposed by the municipal government of CC and PP, without addressing the “structural deficiencies” of San Andrés is “urban irresponsibility.”
The association reminds that “while hotels and gardens are announced facing the sea,” there are areas of San Andrés’ urban core “without sewerage, without drainage, with pollutants contaminating Las Teresitas beach, without adequate parking and without ordered access to the beach.”
For the environmental consultants, the council led by José Manuel Bermúdez (Coalición Canaria) “ignores that Las Teresitas is not just an empty lot for private investment”, but “part of a living urban fabric, with real needs that have been neglected for decades.”
