The Madrid City Council has appealed the rulings of the Contentious-Administrative Court that annulled the licenses granted to 50 ghost kitchens located in two industrial warehouses on Calle de Imperial, 6 (Central district), and Calle Canillas, 18 (Chamartín district). . The rulings, issued on September 12, state that the City Council had not carried out the environmental evaluations of these places that operate as restaurants, but that only serve food for home delivery, as well as the analyzes of the collateral damages for the people who reside in the surroundings. The appeal has been confirmed to EL PAÍS by the neighbors’ defense lawyer, Fernando Arnanz, who has in his possession the document of the appeals made by the City Council, dated October 3 and 4, although those affected received them on Monday October 7. Despite this document, an urban planning spokesperson for the City Council has limited itself to denying the appeal when asked by this newspaper: “Not for now.”
In the ruling, it was also considered that, both at number 18 Canillas Street, ―where there are 38 kitchens installed,― and at 6 Imperial Street, ―where there are another 12― “the City Council has derelict its duty.” by not adequately qualifying the activity for which the licenses were requested. In both blocks there are 276 and 250 homes, respectively. “The entire project of works and activity concerned had to be submitted to the environmental evaluation procedure,” the text indicated.
Residents of both areas, who since 2020 have had hundreds of problems due to the pollution, noise and danger caused by these businesses, claim to be “absolutely outraged” by the resource. “It is not acceptable that these businesses, after four years, are still in the center of Madrid and next to homes, and we do not understand why the City Council has appealed again,” says Esther Lomas, who lives in the neighborhood of one of industrial warehouses.
Appeals also mean more money coming out of the residents’ own pockets. Lomas says that before the ruling the cost of the lawsuit already exceeded 35,000 euros, and now this “represents another tremendous outlay of money.” “We have to pay the lawyers again to defend us against this appeal. We are paying for it twice: with our taxes, since the City Council works with its own lawyers, and with our own money,” he criticizes.
Both appeals imply that, for the moment, the kitchens continue to operate, at least until the Supreme Court of Justice rules on the conformity of the sentence, or until it is revoked. This can take up to a year, depending on the section in which the case is assigned, according to the lawyer, Arnanz. This criterion is supported by the best-known success story in terms of license cancellation, in 2022. At that time, the Madrid City Council was forced to close a dozen ghost kitchens located wall to wall with a public school in the Arganzuela district, at number 8 Alejandro Ferrant Street, next to the Miguel de Unamuno center. He appealed, and a year later the final ruling forced the permits to be revoked.
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