tenerife motor circuit halted court ruling

Tenerife motor circuit halted after fifth court ruling

Court rules environmental approval expired

ATAN (Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature) is to ask the courts for an interim suspension of works on the Tenerife Motor Circuit. The environmental group made the announcement following a new ruling from the Canary Islands High Court of Justice (TSJC), which concluded that the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has expired. In the judgment, handed down on 10 June, the promoter – the Cabildo (island government) – was also ordered to restart the environmental evaluation process for the project to comply with the law.

‘The illegality is devastating’

“The illegality is devastating,” ATAN stressed. The court emphasised that “there can be no doubt that the passage of time without the project being realised requires a new evaluation,” one that would consider new knowledge and techniques available, along with updated regulations “more in line with current environmental requirements.” ATAN has also demanded that the Cabildo’s president, Rosa Dávila, order an immediate and unconditional halt to any work related to the Motor Circuit, as well as “restoration of the damage caused” and the return of the site to its original state.

Five court rulings against the project

“Three first-instance rulings and now two from the Canary Islands High Court of Justice make it clear that this project has no legal cover, no environmental cover and no future. Pressing ahead with it would be a flagrant violation of the rule of law,” the association said. The ruling, which was notified to the parties on Tuesday, specifically concerns the Project to adapt the International Motor Park to the Flood Defence Plan, one of four sub-projects into which the corporation divided the works being carried out in the municipality of Granadilla.

The Administrative-Contentious Chamber has thus sided with ATAN and dismissed the appeal lodged by the Cabildo against the first-instance judgment. The environmental impact assessment was approved in 2011, subject to the condition that it would expire if work did not commence within five years.

Cabildo’s justification rejected

“It cannot be understood that when the EIA refers to the start of works, the mere carrying out of initial actions can be accepted, only for them to be then suspended indefinitely,” the new ruling states, in response to the Cabildo’s defence that the date of the site survey minutes should be taken into account – “curiously just a few days before” the deadline established in the EIA. The judgment also notes that, although the copy of the survey minutes stated that works would begin the following day, “this was not the case.” “This is recognised in technical documents from the Cabildo itself, dated November 2022, which confirm that the level of execution of the Motor Circuit Project was 0.0%,” the ruling points out.

Cabildo awaits further rulings

For its part, the Cabildo of Tenerife (governed by CC and PP) said on Wednesday that it will decide on the project’s future once the TSJC has issued the remaining pending rulings. The judgments still awaiting a second-instance decision relate to the modified project for the northern access to the Tenerife Motor Centre Sports Complex and the modified project for the speed track at the Tenerife International Motor Park. “This is important because one of the rulings is in favour of the Cabildo, and determines that the Environmental Impact Assessment was not expired,” Rosa Dávila argued in a press conference following the island government council meeting. “We will then take a decision,” said the Cabildo president, adding that if there were “a favourable ruling,” the scenario would be “different.”

ATAN accuses Dávila of double standards

In response, ATAN has criticised Dávila for her “double standards.” “The Cabildo president has waved the flag of environmental protection when it has suited her politically, as in the case of the Underwater Gardens project, which she opposed with impassioned eco-rhetoric, yet she strives tooth and nail to defend a megaproject that has accumulated five adverse rulings,” they said. “You cannot boast about caring for nature one week with the cancellation of the Underwater Gardens theme park and then, the following week, receive the fifth ruling against the Circuit without taking action. It is high time Rosa Dávila complied with the law,” they asserted.

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