Mogán's mayor, Onalia Bueno, has proposed creating a working group to address the situation generated by the actions of Costa Canaria in Veneguera, linked to the Lopesan Group, in the ravine and beach of Veneguera.
Mogán's mayor, Onalia Bueno, has proposed the creation of a working group to address the controversy surrounding the works being carried out by Costa Canaria in Veneguera, linked to the Lopesan Group, in the ravine and beach of Veneguera. The initiative was raised during a meeting convened on Thursday, July 23, by the Cultural Environmental Association El Cardonal de Veneguera, in which Bueno participated alongside municipal technicians.
During the meeting, the mayor explained that the competencies of the Mogán City Council are limited to processing the authorisations and resolutions issued by other higher-ranking administrations, such as the Cabildo of Gran Canaria. Bueno denounced the chaos generated by the contradictions between the reports of the Insular Water Council and the Environmental Service of the Cabildo, both favourable and unfavourable respectively regarding the same actions.
The mayor informed that the Council denied up to six licenses, which it was ultimately forced to grant in compliance with rulings from the Administrative Court and the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands. She also guaranteed that public access to Veneguera beach will remain open and that no development can take place in that area as it is a natural space integrated into the Rural Park of Nublo.
The mayor conveyed the administrative complexity of the situation, which involves up to eight administrations and public bodies: the Insular Water Council, the Environmental and Historical Heritage Service of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, the State General Directorate of Coasts, the General Directorate of Coasts and Management of the Canarian Maritime Space, the Canarian Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment, Seprona, and the City Council itself.
In light of this situation, Bueno proposed creating a working group with the aim of providing transparency, fostering dialogue, and clarifying existing doubts about the authorised actions. She explained that these do not form part of a single file, but of various projects whose license applications began to be processed from 2017 for different sections of the ravine.
The mayor assured that the City Council has acted at all times in accordance with the sectoral reports issued by the competent administrations. She denounced that the contradictions between agencies of the same administration, specifically from the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, have generated a situation of great legal insecurity, uncertainty, and confusion.
In this regard, she informed that the Council has issued six unfavourable license resolutions after encountering contradictory reports between the Insular Water Council, favourable to certain actions, and the Environmental Service, which raised objections and issued unfavourable reports on those same actions.
This situation led to various judicial proceedings initiated by Costa Canaria de Veneguera. The most relevant is related to the so-called Section 4, corresponding to the channeling of a section of the ravine, the conditioning of the access road to the beach, and the execution of an elevated walkway. This project obtained authorisation from the Insular Water Council in 2018, but subsequently received unfavourable reports from the Environmental Service of the Cabildo. In light of this contradiction, the City Council requested a pronouncement from the president of the Cabildo, Antonio Morales, without receiving a response. Ultimately, the Council issued an unfavourable resolution, but the promoting company went to court, and the TSJC issued a ruling in favour of the company, forcing the City Council to grant the urban licence.
The mayor clarified that some of the infrastructures that have generated social concern in recent weeks were included in projects that were subject to administrative processing. Among them is an elevated walkway projected over the ravine, as well as actions related to the conditioning of access to the beach. According to the administrative documentation presented during the meeting, the authorised project includes a walkable berm along the stream, several pull-outs to facilitate vehicle crossing, and an elevated structure to ensure the continuity of the road. Furthermore, several of these modifications incorporated conditions requested and agreed upon at the time by representatives of the neighbourhood and the Cultural Environmental Association El Cardonal de Veneguera.
However, Bueno insisted on differentiating between the works covered by administrative authorisations and those actions that the company may have executed exceeding the granted authorisations. She emphasised that the Veneguera ravine is integrated into the Rural Park of Nublo, so the main competencies in environmental, heritage, and sanctioning matters correspond to the Cabildo of Gran Canaria and other sectoral bodies, not to the Mogán City Council.
Bueno was emphatic when referring to the actions currently being investigated by the Cabildo and Coasts. “If actions have been taken outside of what was authorised, let responsibilities be determined and appropriate measures taken,” she stated. The working group aims to be the forum where neighbours, ecologists, administrations, and the company can address the situation transparently and seek consensual solutions.
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