The company Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) guarantees that it has not authorized the destruction of Fonte/Poço de Boliqueime, for the construction of a new roundabout on the EN125, a demolition that yesterday prompted a harsh open letter from the mayor of Loulé, accusing the company of “attack on public memory”.
In clarification, IP says that it "has not authorized the destruction of the Boliqueime Fountain" and that it will analyze this issue "with the utmost urgency" "within the scope of the sub-concession", attributed to the private concessionaire Rotas Litoral do Algarve, responsible for the ongoing works .
Yesterday, the Mayor of Loulé, in an open letter sent to the media, said that Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) «gave a terrible image of what the preservation of a heritage that assumes a symbolic character for the populations'.
Vítor Aleixo lamented that the destruction of the Fonte/Poço de Boliqueime is now presented as a "fait accompli", the public company not having "consulted local authorities in due time".
This despite the fact that the Boliqueime well has been, for "many decades", the mayor stressed, "a reason for the interest and identification of the natives" of that locality, as well as of the municipality of Loulé.
Now, the mayor clarified, «the Municipality of Loulé does not follow this destructive and harmful attitude to the material and immaterial heritage of the population and comes to demarcate itself completely from the intervention that is being carried out in that location, as well as from the others that are taking place , which include the projected roundabouts that ignore the legitimate interests of individuals, designing solutions that, in any case, compromise the crossing of the road (EN 125), separating it transversally and creating difficulties for pedestrians in this sense».
The municipality of Loulé, he stressed, “is not reflected in the policy being followed by Infraestruturas de Portugal, as well as by its concessionaire Rotas do Algarve Litoral”.
Criticizing also the lack of agreement between those entities, which prevented the coordination of the EN 125 requalification with the works in the basic sanitation network that the Chamber wants to do, Vítor Aleixo said that the result will be the extension of the works and the greater expenditure of public money .
For all this, the Loulé mayor considers that Infraestruturas de Portugal promotes a «variable geometry planning», which «does not meet local needs, as is, in fact, well-known in other municipalities in the Algarve, with the failure to proceed with works that are so necessary and that leave a huge wound in the landscape».
This «variable geometry planning», stresses the mayor, is «on a full collision course with what is intended for a road that has been heralded as an alternative to Via do Infante, but which is increasingly far from being, especially when the municipalities involved are not heard, just letting them know the fait accompli”.
The Loulé City Council “not only rebels, but publicly denounces this situation and will inform the government authorities about it”, concludes Vítor Aleixo.
Right now, for what the Sul Informação found today at the site (see photos) there is no longer anything left of the old Boliqueime well or fountain, which even gave its name to the location crossed by the EN125.
The Poço or Fonte de Boliqueime was even at the origin of a curious controversy, in the late 80s, when the most famous son of the land, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, was elected prime minister. Coincidence or not, that was when the town, which until then had always been called Poço de Boliqueime, was promoted the Fountain of Boliqueime.
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