The assessment of projects in environmentally sensitive areas in the Algarve should be based on three pillars and cannot only take into account environmental values. David Santos, president of the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), this week defended that three pillars must always be taken into account when deciding: the environmental, the economic and the social.
The new person responsible for the Algarve CCDR was the guest of this week's radio program «Impressões», organized jointly by the Sul Informação and by Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM. The entire interview can be heard this Saturday, at 12 noon, at 102.7 or on the street website.
«The discussion that has been held for many years, in environmental terms, that everything is environment, environment, environment, must change. Now it must be environment, economy and social. The three pillars are maintained, but it cannot be just the environment. If we don't, we have no chance of holding on and the Algarve overcoming this situation», he considered.
David Santos argued that it is not acceptable that projects that can give a positive boost to the region's economy remain idle for years, waiting for opinions from the most diverse entities. Despite defending that the Spatial Planning instruments must be respected, he considered that, in this area, there cannot be “just yes or no” as an answer to potential investors.
"As a rule, you cannot build in rural areas, but, naturally, the Regional Plan for Land Use of the Algarve (Protal) provides that there are mechanisms to do so, following certain rules," he said. "We have investments of hundreds of millions of euros that we can unlock through these mechanisms, but we have to sit down at the table with these entities and find the common point for approval", he defended.
When he took over from CCDR Algarve, David Santos said he had found some cases of large investments that were stalled and gave the example of a project that was approved this week, after more than 20 years of waiting for approval.
Quinta da Ombria, a tourist development located in Querença, at the confluence of the Barrocal and the Serra, received the green light from the Government a few days ago, after years of controversy over the environmental impact it would have on the area in which it is located.
This resort is located in a Rede Natura 2000 area, next to Fonte da Benémola and above the largest aquifer in the Algarve. Characteristics that led environmental associations to oppose the project and file complaints with the European Commission.
“All interventions in rural areas face great resistance from the outset. But the law has mechanisms for things to be exceeded and says how it should be done. If certain rules are followed, things can be done, if they don't fit, they don't get done. What cannot be done is to take ten years to say yes, but with conditions, and then not let yourself be done», considered the president of the CCDRA.
In the case of this undertaking, "there was here an inertia on the part of these institutions [which have to give opinions] that is not admissible," added David Santos.
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