- Two years ago, Laba was created, the Basque association located in the Plaza del Castillo de Pamplona, with the objective of promoting cultural creativity and serving as a meeting point for the Basques in the center of the city. It wants to be the corresponding terrace, but the City of Pamplona does not authorize it.
Located near Txapitela Street, between Hotel La Perla and Windsor Bar, the cafeteria is its operating character: a coffee tasting room. For this reason, he asked the City Council of Pamplona for authorization to have a terrace in the public space that has in front of the premises in the Plaza del Castillo, but the City Hall has repeatedly denied him, claiming that Labarena is not a host.
The truth is that the rules of the City of Pamplona of 2002 are very clear in relation to this issue: “Only establishments designated as bars, cafes, restaurants and bars and special coffee shops will be allowed to terrace. The terrace will also be allowed to those with the designation of coffee tasting”.
In addition, where the lava would need a terrace, the Windsor bar next to it has its terrace installed. According to the rules, this is possible if the owner of the premises with terrace space authorizes it. In this case, the owner of Lava has not given permission to Windsor. What’s more, Lab asks Windsor and Pamplona City Hall to leave their share for the terrace they need. The City Council has not given up until now.
In the face of the situation, Lava went to the courts and the Administrative Tribunal of Navarra has given him two reasons and ordered the City of Pamplona to authorize Laba in the corresponding part of the terrace. Since the City Council does not comply with the order and continues to appeal, this Thursday the matter came to the plenary of Pamplona.
The councillor of Navarra Suma, Javier Labairu, is responsible for the area and says they do not give him permission because the interpretation of municipal technicians is different from that given by the judge. The report of a municipal architect refers to the resolution of the Superior Court of Justice of Navarra of 2019 on the activities that take place under the license of coffee tasting. This is what the court’s ruling says: “Activity for coffee is between hospitality and business”. On the contrary, the judge who analyzed Lava’s request pointed out that the standard for the terrace permit in Pamplona is very clear and that this argument of the architect is very weak.
EH Bildu and Geroa Bai state in the city hall that they do not believe that the city council raises so many problems if Laba was not an Basque association.