The helipad built by the population on Ilha da Culatra is illegal and it is "urgent that entities and authorities act quickly, firmly and uncompromisingly to restore legality," defended this Friday the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN).
The association for the defense of the environment strongly criticizes several entities, which it accuses of being guilty "of the most complete incompetence or of a compromising complicity by omission", for not having tried to prevent the work from being carried out, despite the fact that it was done on sight. of all.
«It is also serious to perceive the tacit support given by PS and PSD candidates to the Municipal Council of Faro, with your conniving presence. Is it this type of attitude that they will demonstrate in the face of violations of territorial management instruments, when they are in power? It is important to remember recent sentences, for less glaring cases», also accused the Núcleo do Algarve of LPN, in a press release.
Both the current vice president of the Chamber Rogério Bacalhau, candidate for Faro supported by a coalition led by the PSD, as the head of the list of the PS to the presidency of the municipality Paulo Neves were in Culatra on the day of the construction of the heliport, having not, however, publicly expressed their support or disagreement with the act of the population.
Environmentalists believe that, if nothing is done, territorial management in the Ria Formosa, in the region and in the country, will be condemned to «the most perfect anarchy» and that Portugal will be immersed «in a third-world western condition, completely opposite to the dignity of a democratic, European and in the XNUMXst century State of Law”.
For LPN Algarve, this work is an «attack against the rule of law», since it was carried out «in an ecologically sensitive area, integrated in the National Ecological Reserve, on a barrier island in the Ria Formosa lagoon system, included in the Ria Natural Park Formosa (and practically in front of its headquarters) and in the Natura 2000 Network, through the Community Interest Site PTCON0013 – Ria Formosa/Castro Marim and Special Protection Zone PTZPE0017 – Ria Formosa».
The association leaves several questions in the air, from the outset "if no one saw what was going on there". "Or were there orders for no one to see?" he adds. At this point, the targets are the City Council of Faro, the Ria Formosa Natural Park, the Portuguese Environment Agency, the Captaincies and the National Civil Aviation Institute (INAC).
“Does this illegal act represent the deliberate opening of a period of savagery, in which each person is free to do what they want, how much they want and where they want? Or is this privilege only reserved for privileged groups who, under the guise of a fishing community, act in a (un)consciously illegal way on the edge of the Ria Formosa?», questioned the LPN.
The environmental association defends that, if culatrenses are allowed to «accomplish their wishes, in the purest and most gratuitous disregard for the current legislation, the territorial management instruments and the entities that must ensure their application, then all citizens have the legitimate right to aspire to it'.
The Association of Residents of Ilha da Culatra justified, at the time, that the construction of the concrete base, for the future installation of a helipad, was motivated by security concerns, namely thinking about the rapid evacuation of people from the island in case of emergency.
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