The transformation of Consell de Cent into a green axis, one of the stellar actions of the last term of mayor Ada Colau, conforms to the law, according to the City Council, which the day before yesterday presented an appeal against the judgment that obliges to reverse the already completed works. The municipal government claims that the street continues to fulfill the function given to it by the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM), so there was no need to modify it. Not having done so to give validity to this urban planning action is the main argument used by the administrative contentious court number 5 to overturn the project following a lawsuit by Barcelona Oberta.
Due to the fact that after the works the functionality that the PGM attributes to the secondary and local road network, of which Consell de Cent is a part, is prevented from linking with the basic one, as stated in the sentence, the appeal wields, according to explained municipal sources to La Vanguardia, that the judge “practically transcribed the report of the plaintiff and has not evaluated or has not done so adequately any of the City Council’s reports, both those in the administrative file and the one provided in his answer to the demand”.
The ruling, recall the same sources, “is based on the idea that the connecting function of local roads to the basic network requires that the circulation of motor vehicles on the street has continuity along its route, when this continuity has nothing what to do with the connector function, since the PGM does not establish in its article any reference to the characteristics that road developments must have, nor does it determine the percentage of land that must be allocated to each means of transport”.
The ruling states that the intersection of Consell de Cent i Enric Granados is replaced with the works by a square and ceases to be a local road network to turn it into a place to stay, and this would also have required a modification of the PGM. At this point, the Barcelona City Council alleges that the judge’s decision also “is limited to transcribing part of the report provided by the plaintiff which at no time makes a specific analysis of the works carried out nor has taking into account none of the municipal reports, which certify that the intersection maintains its functionality as a road because it continues to enable mobility”.
Another element that the municipal government comments on the sentence is the desirability of fragmenting the works. The City Council considers that “the judgment is in error because it disregards the report that accompanies the demand and does not assess solely the redevelopment project of Consell de Cent, which is the only object of the appeal, but the four green axes” , also those of Girona, Rocafort and Comte Borrell.
As for the fact that the project does not include a socio-economic and environmental report, the City Council responds that “the judgment does not mention which precept has been breached by not providing it”. In addition, he recalls that “the various project reports include all the aspects required by local regime legislation in ordinary works projects”, and indicates that “in the process prior to the approval of the redevelopment projects, carry out several studies of mobility, economic activity, health and environmental quality that reinforced the validity of the implementation of the green axes and offered a detailed view of the impacts on all these aspects”.
