Madrid, Jul 1 (EFE).- Several residents of Arganzuela have protested this Saturday to demand that Adif and the Madrid City Council close the ‘Espacio Ibercaja Delicias’ and that the land where it is located be recovered for endowments “committed” to the neighborhood.
Residents of the area have gathered this noon on the Paseo de las Delicias convened by the Stop Espacio Delicias Platform and the Delicias Neighborhood Association for (email protected) to remind the City Council and Adif of their “obligation” to “comply and enforce the law ”.
According to the residents, the 31,926 square meters that the ‘Espacio Ibercaja Delicias’ occupies “are intended for basic equipment”, such as nursery schools, schools, institutes, cultural centers, libraries or health centers.
However, they continue to explain, the macro leisure center “has been operating irregularly since September 2021 through licenses that do not conform to actual use and whose last activity license is under appeal in court due to its clear illegality.”
According to the residents’ account, in October 2018 the Madrid City Council, Adif and the Ministry of Culture signed a protocol to put the land of the old Delicias station into operation.
In June 2019, Adif signed a lease contract with the company Gran Teatro Príncipe Pío SL to dedicate the public land for use as a private tertiary, a contract that was made for two years, extendable to another two, and whose expiration was June 30. of 2023.
However, the Platform continues to explain, “it seems that we are about to witness a new illegality, given the will publicly expressed by Adif to extend the lease contract at least until December 2023”, something that, if it occurs, would breach the Article 86.2 of Law 33/2003, of November 3, on the Assets of Public Administrations, which establishes the four years contemplated as the authorization limit.
The Neighborhood Platform also denounces the “complicity” of the City Council, “which has been abandoning these lands for twenty-five years, despising the public.”
“His only policy has been to abandon the land, while at the same time he has authorized the operation of ‘Espacio Ibercaja Delicias’ through planning permits of dubious legality,” he adds.
For all these reasons, the residents demand that Adif terminate the lease and “require Gran Teatro Príncipe Pío SL to leave the leased property free and available to Adif”.
In addition, they demand that the City Council “exercise ownership of the land ceded by RENFE in 1989 and adopt all the necessary legal actions to claim ownership from Adif and guarantee compliance with the urban legality established in the PGOUM”
And also that the consistory “immediately” prepare the basic equipment plan “through a democratic and transparent process of neighborhood participation that ensures that the residents of the Arganzuela neighborhood have committed basic equipment and services.”