The Parish Council of Ferragudo installed an ATM in the village market, accessible 24 hours a day, as a result of a partnership with Novo Banco.
The installation of the ATM represented an investment of around 10 thousand euros by the Parish Council, which had to remodel the public toilets in the market and provide specific space for the ATM, as well as the costs of installing and configuring the equipment.
Luís Alberto, president of that municipality, explains that «the pressing need for this installation is the result of the closure of two of the three ATM machines that previously existed, which served the Vila».
The mayor regrets that, "no matter how much efforts are made to fill the absence of certain services, it has not yet been possible to reopen a bank branch" in Ferragudo.
This town in the municipality of Lagoa, like many other localities, has, in recent years, been deprived of public services, with the Board having assumed many of these functions, in order to guarantee «the level of services to the resident and visiting population».
A "paradigmatic" case is that of the CTT in Ferragudo, managed by the Parish Council since 2013 and "which today appears to be a success story at the regional level, as it also provides the population with a list of essential services, preventing them from traveling several kilometers away, it is still the central point of tourist and informational dynamism in the town», as it offers postal services, but it is also a tourist information point and free internet access.
The Parish of Ferragudo stresses that the installation of the ATM «is another step towards serving populations and visitors». «Despite the lack of financial and human resources, if compared to most Parishes in the region, [Ferragudo] will continue to increase the services and equipment available, such as Horta Urbana, Casa do Real Compromisso, the Citizen's space. , the cemetery equipment, the Ferragudo market, as well as, in the future, the provision of a new space for the functioning of the administrative services of the Parish».
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