The First Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has recognized the company XC Business for obtaining, by positive administrative silence, the environmental license that it requested in February 2013 to install a fuel and petroleum fuel distribution center in the port of Alicante.
The ruling, notified this Wednesday to the parties, upholds the appeal filed by the company and revokes a previous ruling by a Contentious-Administrative Court, dated February 2022.
The TSJCV points out in its resolution that the Alicante city council, defendant in this appeal, “has been requesting reports and corrections” from the applicants since 2013, despite the fact that article 49 of Law 2/2006 or article 54 of the Valencian Law 2/2014 “establishes a simple correction procedure that does not allow the Administration to follow a procedure for years by successively requesting documentation.”
The magistrates point out that the company’s project “complies with current regulations” and the license has been acquired due to positive administrative silence.
Based on the reports prepared by the technicians of the Alicante council, the Chamber concludes that there is no obstacle to obtaining this positive administrative silence regarding the activity license.
The Court also does not see any urban planning obstacle, since the City Council itself, specifically its Department of Inspection and Technical Control, considered the location of the activity suitable in a report from 2014, and in another from 2015 it resolved that the project complied with the planned regulations. for the area.
Finally, the Chamber does not find any obstacles from the prism of the port public domain, as can be seen from a report issued by the Port Authority in November 2018.
The ruling made public this Wednesday is not final, since an appeal is possible against it before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court or, where appropriate, before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court itself.
Mayor Luis Barcala (PP) considers that the ruling is “bad news for Alicante” and remembers that his government team has always been against the granting of this license, so the legal office will study the TSJ ruling. and “the different alternatives that are proposed.” The rest of the municipal groups (PSPV, Vox, Compromís and EU-Podem) have also spoken out against the project on multiple occasions.
