Mayor of Malaga’s Benalmadena hints at expropriating Tivoli World

Victor Navas, the mayor of the Malaga municipality of Benalmadena has hinted at expropriating the Tivoli World amusement park.

Victor Navas, the mayor of the Malaga town of Benalmadena, posting on his official Twitter account on Monday, June 6, threatened to initiate “the procedures for the expropriation of Tivoli World”, if the closure situation of the amusement park continues. He also reaffirmed the commitment of his government team to the staff of the leisure facility.

The mayor’s reaction was prompted by an announcement made by the bankruptcy administration and the workers’ representatives, that they have begun the negotiation of the Employment Regulation File (ERE) to terminate the contracts of 79 Tivoli World employees, according to malagahoy.es.

Mr Navas pointed out that “if the time comes when the park does not open, perhaps we would be in a position to expropriate it”.

He pointed out that is a measure the government team is considering “based on an opinion we have from the University of Malaga (UMA) that we requested at the time when we protected the land with a municipal file initiated a year ago”.

The mayor explained that the expropriation could be undertaken “as the land is protected, and Tivoli is considered to be of public interest. What we will have to do first as a Council is to ask the owner to open it, in the public’s interest”.

Regarding the claim, Navas indicated “we cannot ask for it yet because the protection of the park is not effective”. That is because not all the formalities have been completed, and the Council is waiting for final approval. It is the responsibility of the Junta de Andalucia, to “demand the opening of the park once it is protected”.

“The land is protected and endowed with a public interest, and like any other facility of public interest, when it does not serve the use that it has made explicit in the General Urban Planning Plan (PGOU), it can range from withdrawing a concession to expropriating, or using any of the legal administrative tools that the administrations have”, he clarified.

Navas remarked that the Council is considering the possibility of expropriating , but has clarified that it does not threaten with this measure, but rather that it wants to “open the park”, which he pointed out “is an element of public and general interest”, which would support the expropriation. 

“We are not going to let the Tivoli land be speculated on, which is what seems to be happening”, warned the mayor. He clarified that the park “cannot be closed any longer” because of the deadline set by the government team to adopt a decision such as expropriation.

Benalmadena Council launched a file for the protection of the park a year ago, the initial approval of which took place in October last year at the Plenary Session of the Municipal Corporation, after which was a publication and a period of allegations.

This was followed by a provisional approval last February and “the documentation has already been sent to the Junta de Andalucia so that it can give us the final approval”, said Navas.

“With this definitive approval, it will already appear in our PGOU that Tivoli is an element of general interest, and from there we will initiate the procedures to demand that they open the doors”, he concluded.

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