The business association ACRAL was pleased with the result of the vote that determined the lead of the application for a license for the works of the IKEA project presented to the Chamber of Faro. The vote was opposed by the PS and PCP councilors to the request for a construction license (mostly in the Faro executive).
For ACRAL president Victor Guerreiro, this vote “represents a victory for the Farenses and the Algarve in the process of opposition to the mega commercial complex that the multinational IKEA wants to install on the doorstep of Faro and Loulé».
Vitor Guerreiro underlines that the vote that dictated the refusal of the works license by the Chamber of Faro IKEA was already guessing, with the request of the PS and CDU councilors to withdraw the vote on the license request from the agenda of the December 4th Chamber meeting.
For Victor Guerreiro, the doubts raised by the PS and PCP councilors in the Chamber of Faro on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the IKEA project, «make perfect sense in the light of an Environmental Impact Statement which, in the perspective of ACRAL, is far from ensuring the protection of environmental interests to populations».
«This is an unparalleled project in the Algarve, with 220 stores in two shopping centers, in addition to an IKEA store and two more megastore-type stores, which IKEA intends to make believe will have reduced socio-economic impacts, which will not it is a proven or credible fact, on the contrary”, adds Victor Guerreiro.
The ACRAL leader also stresses that «the cautions of the PS and PCP councilors to the Chamber of Faro, on the possibility that the legal actions taking place in the administrative courts related to the IKEA project could determine, in the future, responsibilities for the municipality, should also have guided the vote of the councilors of the Loulé Council who approved the request for the licensing of the work for the IKEA project in that county».
«The PCP and PS councilors in Faro demonstrated common sense and attention to future problems resulting from the IKEA project that the councilors of Loulé should have had when voting in that council, in order to avoid potentially serious damage to the Loulé municipality and to the Loulé residents», he concludes.
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