The issue of the irregular license of a hotel establishment in Kai has caused a stir these days. In fact, the Town Planning Department of the City Council of Donostia-San Sebastián authorized the transfer of the bar located in the portal 11 of the Paseo de la Muelle, previously Ostertz, now Kantina Muelle, from group 1 of the hotel establishments, which cannot sell alcohol and install a kitchen, to group 2, which can sell alcohol, in an area that is designated as “saturated area” and therefore irregular. In addition, the Chief of the Municipal Activity Service, who is an official who has been in the municipality for years, expressed support for the change in the category of the establishment, based on the technical report drafted by the advice of his son.

In Parte Vieja, the neighborhood association Vivir filed a complaint with the city council and the courts, EH Bila brought the matter to the municipal committees on Wednesday and the councilor for Urbanism, Nekane Arzallus, declared that this license will be revoked, as well as others will be reviewed; EH Bil, Juntos San Sebastián and PP have been critical of the performance of the municipal government. The subject, however, goes further and offers a press conference about it on Friday morning at the City Hall in Parte Vieja by Bizik, through its members Iñigo Cabañas and Xabier Arberas.

The Neighborhood Association recalls that, being the head of the Activity Service and the one who has prepared the technical report, the official “was legally obliged to refuse to intervene in the procedure and to notify his superiors, but he did not do so.” And, they point out, this is not the “only” case in which the mother and son have acted “together” without the forced resignation of the head of service: “We have informed the Councilor for Urban Planning and the Director of Urban Planning of four other cases in which this has happened. Surely there will be others, and it is up to them to investigate. Without delay or forgetfulness, the file must be opened and resolved, because, let us not forget, the failure to comply with the duty to refuse to intervene is a serious or very serious lack of discipline.”

Arzallus, for his part, said in Wednesday’s committee that “about 6,000 files are processed annually” and that he does not have “time” to see if there is a family relationship between the people involved in the procedure. As for the measures to be taken, he did not clarify what will happen to the official of the Department of Urbanism who authorized the irregularity. In the Old Part, Bizi, on the other hand, emphasizes that “someone should explain.”

“‘A specific modus operandi’”

The neighborhood association denounces that the theme of the license of the tavern must be framed “within a whole modus operandi”, whose “beneficiary” is always the same: “The hospitality sector of the Old Town”. “The rules are supposed to be the same for everyone, but they don’t apply equally to everyone,” they add. They also criticize the fact that breaches of the rules of hospitality establishments are always registered by the city council as “minor breaches, even if the same breaches are committed repeatedly”.

Along the same lines, the members of the neighborhood association denounce the “abandonment” of the municipal managers in this and other matters: “Another example of this modus operandi is the abandonment between the Provincial Council and the City Council in the matter of unauthorized works in the Old Town: We filed 42 complaints and, in the end, the Ombudsman gave us his reasons, telling the city council that it was his responsibility to take responsibility for the complaints and make the necessary interventions and impose sanctions. However, so far, of these 42 complaints, only ten have been answered by the Urbanism.”

This, however, has not been the only model that Bizi has put in the Old Part to denounce the “abandonment” of the municipal authorities, since the issue of illegal warehouses has also been recalled by the residents of the neighborhood association: “We noticed that many of the vacant premises in the neighborhood, once used by the small business, were being used as warehouses by the hotel establishment without permission. The City Council, as usual, began to move in relation to the denunciation of our association. It was approved, but we didn’t know anything and the issue remains the same.”

In addition, it is reported that when the neighborhood association makes a complaint, “the local police appear two weeks or a month later,” or “at times when there are no problems.” On the other hand, regarding the transparency of the municipality, they denounce that the municipality “denies information” to the neighborhood association many times, arguing that the association “is not the interested party”.