Tag: Canary Islands High Court

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 

Canary Islands Expect Rain and Potential Storm Weather Next Week

The Canary Islands are preparing for a change in the weather next week, as a significant increase in cloud is expected bringing higher probability of rain. The effects of a powerful storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean are likely to extend to the Canary Islands as well as neighbouring Madeira and The Azores.

 

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 2-4 June 2023

June is here and that means that summer is just around the corner. The Patron Saints’ festivities in honour of San Juan de Bautista and San Antonio de Padua are just getting started on Gran Canaria, and in Pueblo de Mogán the main Romería pilgrimage for San Antonio El Chico is this first Saturday of June, as well as the start of the build up to those in Arucas, Santa Brígida and Moya. This weekend also brings the biggest outlet fair shopping experience back to INFECAR and a collectables fair in Gáldar.
OPERATION KILO is this weekend, at all participating supermarkets, asking you to add a few non-perishable food items to the Food Bank collection boxes to help families in need.

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

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Canary Islands High Court TSJC annuls modernisation plan that authorised Siam Park Gran Canaria Water Park Maspalomas

The long running and much beleaguered Loro Parque group project to build a Siam Park Gran Canaria Water Park has been dealt a serious blow, many months after the company had warned that the investment project could no longer be maintained without movement forward, particularly in the face of the global pandemic. The Canary Islands Superior Court of Justice, our regional high court, (TSJC) have ruled to annul the Plan for Modernisation, Improvement and Increase of Competitiveness in the area of ​​El Veril, where for 7 years the project has tried to move forward, and which had been approved by the Government of the Canary Islands to authorise construction of the new water park in the southern tourism heartland of Maspalomas.

 

The TSJC considers that the plan could not be approved without a report on the availability of water resources to ensure that these existed in “sufficient” quantity to meet the new demands derived from the contested plan, which includes construction of a hotel, a restaurant and cafes.
Grupo Loro Parque have yet to respond to the judgement, but will no doubt be incredulous at this latest obstacle to their €100m plan originating more than 15 years ago, and supposed to have got the go ahead as far back as 2013/14 with the support of the Gran Canaria Water Board, the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, The Canary Islands Regional Government and a slew of other institutions on the premise of it being a tourism development project of significant interest, not only in terms of tourism offering, but also urban development, economic benefit, employment and a range of other positives, which now, once more, have all been called into question.
We will report more as responses are made public. Will this be the end of Siam Park Gran Canaria? They’ve proven most tenacious thus far, perhaps this is not yet the end of the road… only time will tell.  No one would blame them if they decided to pack up the project and go elsewhere, even after having spent millions of euros in developing the land, fighting, sometimes spurious, legal challenges and promoting what most seem to agree to be a very worthy project on what is otherwise a wasteland separating Playa del Ingles from the main GC1 motorway.

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