The Municipal Assembly of Portimão approved, in its ordinary session on December 29, a motion defending “the immediate suspension of toll charges on the A22/Via do Infante”.
The motion was approved by a large majority, with 18 votes in favor (two from the BE, one from the CDU, one from the CDS and 14 from the PS), and five abstentions (PSD).
The motion begins by recalling that, "after a process of general opposition in the Algarve, the government approved the collection of tolls on Via do Infante, designated A22, starting on December 8th."
«As expected, with the start of charging high fees in a structuring path for the socio-economic development of the region, the average daily traffic of 14 vehicles dropped by more than 548%, now having a “zero intensity”, according to Euroscut, exploration concessionaire; highlights the text approved in AM.
On the other hand, “as expected, road traffic was transferred to the EN 125, a longitudinal coastal road known as the road of death, given its high accident and mortality rate, making it one of the most dangerous roads. from the country. According to the National Road Safety Authority, from December 2009 to December 2010, the Algarve recorded 176 serious injuries and 57 road deaths. The high traffic circulating on the EN 125 also multiplies fuel costs and pollution indices, creating a situation of chaos and blocking mobility, with increased costs for labor productivity and a drag on the economy».
The motion adds that, «as a corollary to the gravity of this situation, the data that are announced are of extreme concern for the economic and social development of the Algarve: successive closure of companies in the areas of construction, catering, distribution, agriculture and tourism; reduction of road fleets in the windward and center of the region; abandonment of university studies by students in daily flow; unemployment rate in the last quarter of 20,8%, the biggest increase in the country».
«The economic support of tourism in the Algarve is at stake, with the collection of tolls from companies, visitors and tourists who travel from the Guadiana international bridge, in the continuation of non-tolled European roads. Every year more than 55 million people move between Spain and Portugal and more than 25 million tons of goods are traded between the two countries. The situation is so serious that it has already motivated a set of legislative and political measures to denounce, clarify and complain against Portugal, on the part of Spanish society, in a consensus between political, business and civic organizations», underlines the text approved by AM de Portimão. .
«It is clear to the Algarve's citizens, workers and businessmen that there is no future for the Algarve if serious measures are not taken to cancel the collection of an unfair and harmful toll from all points of view. If this does not happen, despair, unemployment, misery, the closure of companies and the collapse of the sustainability of tourism, will be the daily life of the Algarve, in an announced context of systematic crisis», concludes the motion.
AM will inform the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Economy and Employment, the Parliamentary Groups, the President of the Algarve Intermunicipal Community, the Mayors and Municipal Assemblies of the Algarve and the media regional and national social
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