The Costas, Costal Authority, the Government department for the Demarcation of the Coasts of the Canary Islands, have commissioned the public company Tragsa to remove a breakwater and embankment built “without a license” by the timeshare company, Anfi, that held the concession during work carried out back in 2016 on Playa de Tauro beach.
Brine outlet from desalination plant on Tauro Beach, Gran Canaria
The esplanade covers an area of between 50 & 60 meters by 20 meters, and will cost an estimated €35,000 to be removed, which the Costas say they will later collect from the concessionaire Anfi Tauro SA. The company have refused to remove the construction, made of large rocks dumped onto the shoreline, ostensibly while they await court action outcomes, they are seeking some for of compensation for the €2m they say they spent improving the beach, and have also denied any responsibility for the desalination plant outlet pipe which was recently discovered to have been pumping brine pollution under the sands for the last five years.
May 24 has been set as the new date for signing the act of reversal for the Tauro concession, that was scheduled for yesterday and then postponed pending a Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) ruling on precautionary measures that the company requested to try to stop this final act of the reversal, following their loss of the concession last year.
The head of the Canarian Costas, Rafael López Orive, explained this Wednesday that his department will undertake the works on a subsidiary basis, following Anfi Tauro SA’s refusal to carry them out. In principle, the job will be commissioned to the public company Tragsa and have an estimated budget of around €35,000, the bill for which will then be passed on to the ex-concessionaire for collection. In any case, the work is not imminent, but is likely to start within the next few weeks.
Orive clarified that this is the result of a sanctioning file opened back in 2016 and that has already become a firm decision through administrative channels. These works were carried out beyond the area for which Anfi Tauro had had an administrative concession granted by the central government. In other words, this file is not related to the process that has been initiated to return the concession of beach management to the public administration. Once the reversal has been signed it is Mogan Town Hall who will be expected to reopen Tauro beach after more than five years closed, fenced and in legal limbo. The Mogán mayor has said that her administration can only reopen the beach after the breakwater has been removed.
Anfi Tauro SA was granted permission in 2015, jubilantly supported by the then newly “elected” mayor of Mogán, to regenerate and exploit 11,200 square meters of beach for seasonal services, but this esplanade or embankment, which was also reinforced by a breakwater, is completely outside what was planned or agreed. It is part of a long list of irregularities that have come to light regarding this major project.
