RESPECT PLANNING LAWS, URGES GOVERNMENT

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Wednesday March 31 2010

TENERIFE'S Cabildo government launched a campaign to encourage respect for planning laws on Wednesday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Cabildo planning minister María del Pino de León stressed that: "Good land management is the responsibility not only of public authorities but also of all citizens.

“The land, especially on an island like ours is essential and limited, of great ecological, cultural and heritage value that we must know how to manage and care for.”

The minister said that the first step would be to foster knowledge and interest of citizens in planning laws and how to navigate them.

The regional Canarian government's education ministry will support the campaign with a territorial culture competition in schools, while the University of La Laguna will place more emphasis on planning laws in its architecture, geography and law classes.

The Cabildo is helping to organise the Canaries Urban Planning Law Congress in May and the Latin American Urbanism Congress in October.

Tenerife saw extensive unregulated development in the post-war period, but nowadays obtaining planning permission is complicated -- especially when local, regional and national planning regulations contradict one another.

Some local councils, including El Rosario and the capital Santa Cruz, have come under fire in the past six months over General Ordination Plans (PGOs) which residents say reduce both their property rights and the sale value of their homes.

Councillors and mayors have been accused of acting against residents' interests in favour of property speculators.

The Assembly for Tenerife (AXT) has organised several demonstrations of over ten thousand people against the Santa Cruz PGO, as well as against plans to build a rival port at Granadilla on the south coast.

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