The concessionaires of Praia de Monte Gordo they want more time to renew the support they have in this bathing area.
The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) has already notified the owners of commercial establishments that they have until February 22 to demolish the structures, but they claim that the four months given to tear down what exists, build the new structures and equip them , are short.
The demolition of the current beach support will be carried out within the scope of the requalification plan for Praia de Monte Gordo, which is being promoted by the City Council of Vila Real de Santo António and by the APA.
In June, two abandoned structures in this bathing area were torn down. However, the entities responsible for the intervention prepared a requalification plan, which will start in the first half of February. The construction of a 2-kilometre elevated pedestrian walkway, along the entire seafront, and 18 new beach supports, "which will replace the old ones, as new structures are built", are some of the measures it contemplates.
The owners of the beach facilities have already shown themselves to be unhappy with what is planned, but “not because they are against the redevelopment of the seafront at Praia de Monte Gordo, on the contrary”, guaranteed Victor Hugo Palma, leader of the CDS of Baixo Guadiana. Elements of the VRSA and Castro Marim councils of this party met with the owners of the beach support this week and ensured that what is questioned is a tight deadline for making interventions and the month chosen to launch the plan, which, in the view of the owners of establishments, it should be in October.
After the meeting with the concessionaires, it was «clear» to the CDS «that the 4 months proposed for the execution of the works, demolishing the existing structures, building the new ones and equipping them is a very short period».
The timing of the intervention is also questioned, as it covers the Easter period, “an important time for tourism in the region”.
The current concessionaires are, moreover, guaranteed to be able to build new supports, despite the fact that each one costs 95 thousand euros, since, according to the mayor of VRSA Luís Gomes, the increase in the number of structures to be installed, which rose from the eight initially foreseen to 18, "it means that all entrepreneurs who had activity on the beach and have their situation regularized will not need to submit to a tender, putting an end to the system of precarious licenses that had been in force until now."
With regard to the timing of the intervention, the concessionaires' intentions come up against the "hurry" that the VRSA Council has to see this bathing area of the county reclassified, especially after the basis of an understanding reached with the APA, which allowed progress with a work long claimed by the municipality this year.
“There are those who are afraid of demolitions. We, in VRSA, don't. We here want them to move forward! Because it means qualification and giving opportunity to economic agents who are already there to work more and better", assured the mayor, last summer, on the sidelines of a session that served to inaugurate the new municipal tourism office in Manta Rota and the new image of the beaches in this area of the municipality.
At the time, Luís Gomes demanded an effort from the Government to “launch the procedures for the redevelopment of the beach front of Monte Gordo», which ended up happening, with the elaboration of the plan that will now be put into practice.
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