"We get in touch with good news: in the end the Laba network has got the authorization to install a terrace," Lava acknowledged in the note published today. In fact, on 1 August the Director General of Local Administration and Depopulation signed resolution 283/2023 declaring the subsidiary execution of the agreement of the Administrative Tribunal of Navarra of October 2022. Considering that the project presented on January 14, 2022 in the City of Pamplona, "the Laba Association is granted the authorization to install a terrace for the development of its activity".

It has been unprecedented and in May they still did not know when they would be able to install the terrace. On this occasion they do not know when they will be able to open, but "at once" they will open the terrace. Only yesterday the City Council of Pamplona, the Laba Association, the Hotel La Perla and the Hostal Windsor were informed of the possibility to place their tables and chairs as soon as the fees for the installation of tables and terrace are paid.

The notification has been rejected by the members of Windsor and this morning their tables and chairs have not been removed from the terrace area of Lava. Lava has confessed that this can extend the issue, but they have confirmed that they have the right to be a terrace and that they will have a terrace before it is too late, "to offer all Basques a different space".

Year and a half "mere formality"

Although the members of the Laba network were "very satisfied", "regrettably this matter has been prolonged for more than a year and a half by an arbitrary decision of the City of Pamplona". They denounce the "ignorance" of the City Council to the Ombudsman of Navarra and the Administrative Court of Navarra and try to extend the judicial process to the maximum.

"When we opened the doors in January 2022 we thought it would be a mere formality," but it hasn't. "In the end it has been an abrupt and very long road," which has placed obstacles at various levels. On the one hand, because they have been denied an exhibition space and, on the other, because "it has forced us to devote the time and energy we wanted to invest in the project to this issue". "It was time!" The members of Lab celebrated it, although they said they still have work. "As we have done so far, we will continue to work to offer all Basques a nice place to live in Basque, to offer Basque cultural programming as orderly as possible and to extend the irradiation of the Laba network throughout the city," they add.

"They've hidden Lava, but now they'll see us more than ever," they've tried communication to the media to thank the partners, workers, volunteers, creators, who've gone through the stage and all the cultural agents. "Lava is a network; it's all of us. We are lava."