In the summer of 2019, Odeleite will already have a river beach. After a first proposal for the award of the work have been rejected, in December, by the opposition, which has a majority in the Chamber, a new proposal submitted by the Castro Marim Primeiro (CM1) movement, led by José Estevens, was approved this Monday, August 21, giving the project the green light.
At the Chamber meeting, the PSD executive and José Estevens voted in favor and the two PS councilors voted against.
In a statement, the CM1 explains that, after the lead in December last year, "it considered the importance of setting in Odeleite an investment with the size of the proposal and the synergies that it can stimulate."
The proposal «presented by José Estevens and approved by the City Council, is embodied in the approval of the construction of the Nautical Center with the guarantee that it will be concessioned to private parties, with the essential elements of this tender being defined immediately and thus reducing the financial effort to allocate by the Municipality», explains the movement.
On the other hand, «the proposal made a commitment to invest in the requalification of the village of Odeleite, an amount equal to that invested in the construction of the Nautical Centre, regardless of the amount of community funding».
Francisco Amaral, president of the Chamber of Castro Marim, explained to Sul Informação that the differences between this proposal and the one submitted by the executive “are not substantial. What happened is that a councilor decided to believe and have faith in this project. If I had already taken the position last December, this summer, we would already have the beach up and running».
The mayor emphasizes that «the initial proposal was ours and was complemented. The main change, with which we are in agreement, is that the bar and other infrastructures should be explored by a private person. It never occurred to us that the Chamber would explore the spaces».
According to Francisco Amaral, with this approval of the final award proposal, «next summer, the beach will already be in operation».
The work will cost 600 thousand euros, and will be co-funded by PO CRESC 2020, supported by Portugal and the European Union and 70% co-financed by the FEDER.
The intervention covers an area of 6100 square meters, «with green areas, floating pools, beach facilities, a seating area» and also includes a Nautical Activities Centre, «whose strategic program was also approved. There, activities such as canoeing, sailing, sport fishing and integrating triathlon circuits can be developed, representing a pole of attraction and an important contribution to the fight against seasonality and desertification», considers the Chamber of Castro Marim.
When the project was launched, Francisco Amaral stressed that this is «a project that boosts the tourism that already exists in this area, much sought after for its gastronomy and landscape, and that also ends the illegal and unsafe use of this dam for bathing, such as has been happening».
Francisco Amaral also considers that, «given the success I had with the river beach of Alcoutim, I believe that the success of this new beach will be greater, as it has a huge mirror of water, water of better quality, it is closer to the coast and located right next to the IC 27».
The mayor also argues that this is a decisive factor to leverage the local economy, “all the more so as it has associated a private project that complements public investment. We speak of an important contribution in the fight against desertification and depopulation», he concludes.
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