Arona Deputy Mayors Face Criminal Complaint Over Building Permit Delays

Urban planning in the Tenerife municipality of Arona is back under legal scrutiny. A local businessman has filed a criminal complaint against four deputy mayors from the Canarian Coalition, accusing them of administrative prevarication. The complaint targets Clara María Pérez Pérez, Ruth Guacimara Martín López, Guacimara Tavío Fumero, and Héctor Timoteo Reyes González, citing a six-year delay in processing a building permit for a project in Los Cristianos.

The dispute centers on a proposed sociocultural and recreational site on Camino Montaña Chayofita. Despite receiving favorable technical and legal reports—including a formal recommendation for approval last July—the Local Government Board removed the project from its agenda twice. The councilors justified these delays by claiming they needed "further study" and additional reports on a 1999 urbanization plan. However, the plaintiff argues this lacks legal merit, as municipal experts had already validated the project.

This case highlights the ongoing tension between political discretion and the legal requirement to process administrative requests on time. Under Spanish law, "prevarication by omission" occurs when officials knowingly withhold a decision on a complete, approved file, causing harm to the applicant. The complaint argues that the six-year wait since the initial September 2020 application is a clear breach of public duty.

The prosecution is now asking the Arona Court of Instruction to determine if the delays were intentional. They have requested that the four councilors be summoned as suspects and that municipal technicians be called to testify. The court has also been asked to review all relevant administrative documents, including meeting minutes from July 2026, to decide if the request for new reports was a legitimate necessity or a deliberate tactic to stall the project.

Beyond the criminal investigation, the developer has warned that they may seek damages for the economic losses caused by the delay. The court’s inquiry will now determine whether the municipal government acted within the law or if their actions amounted to an arbitrary misuse of power that has blocked private investment in the south of the island for years.