Well, there’s another court case out against Benny after the Judge at a preliminary hearing considered that there was sufficient evidence against the Mayor and the ex Councillor for Urban Development, Emilio González, for them to face trial for harassment. The case has been brought against him by the co-proprietor of the Camping Carambolo, which is on the opposite side of the road to and just up from the Los Pinos turn off.
We interviewed the owner of the campsite a year or two ago, Fermin Tejero, who is also the local leader of the IU party. On that occasion he pointed out a number of seemingly unjust and petty actions carried out by the Town Hall, all of which were allegedly designed to create as much economical damage by closing the site down during peak periods. Besides being a camping site open to all, it also has a classroom to impart environmental-awareness classes.
Anyway, back to the present court action: according to the Judge, the Town Hall was well aware of the injustice of their administrative sanctions etc. The administrative actions in question took place in 2005 when Férmin Tejero reported the Town Hall for harassment for closing down the Environmental Education Centre within the campsite, ‘without explaining the motives behind it.’ Sr. Tejero says that they received five inspections in the space of only two weeks. On none of these visits were they informed of the time limit available to put right the ‘defects’ detected.
According to Sr. Tejero this vexation was the result of his having opposed the PGOU in his role as the IU councillor in the municipal council.
It’s worth pointing out here that this campsite is only part of the locale that can even be considered a botanical garden, which was laid down in the 50’s, was earmarked in the said PGOU for residential development; i.e., a hillside of flats.
The Town Hall had already been taken to court over this and was found guilty in a civil court action. However, almost a year and a half later, the Town Hall has failed to carry out the court sentence and re-open the campsite. For this reason, the two men have now been denounced before a criminal court under the Penal Law Code.