The Autocaravanista Association of Portugal (CPA) filed an injunction in the Administrative Court of Loulé, requesting the suspension of the effectiveness of some norms contained in the Municipal Regulations for the Licensing of Camping and Occasional Caravaning Activities and for the Exercise of Motorcaravaning Activities, approved by Silves Municipal Assembly in 2017.
The CPA considers that such rules “have no legal basis”.
Paulo Moz Barbosa, president of that association, explained to our newspaper that "Providencia Cautelar, which is followed by an administrative action for objection, focuses on the articles of the regulation that negatively discriminate motorhomes, namely when contrary to what is regulated by the Highway Code" .
And because Silves was not the only municipality in the Algarve to approve a regulation on Motorcaravans, «the direction of the CPA will give instructions for the same treatment to be given to what stipulates the regulation of Vila Real de Santo António».
The CPA leader adds that, "despite being challenged by the Municipality, the injunction followed its procedures, and is currently awaiting sentence."
The document was filed with the Loulé Administrative Court on July 18 of last year, and the Silves Chamber was summoned, six days later, on July 24, to file opposition to the injunction, seeking to suspend the effectiveness of a joint. of norms contained in municipal regulation No. 284/2017.
Councilor Maxime Bispo, who is in charge of the issue of Motorcaravans in the municipality of Silves, explained to Sul Informação that the Association "disputes the normative concept of "parking" adopted in the municipal regulation, as well as the prohibition of staying overnight in motorhomes outside the campsites and caravan parks or legally authorized places for the practice of motorhomes and duly identified, namely areas of motorhome service'.
The Municipality of Silves, which guarantees to respect "the position taken by Associação Autocaravanista de Portugal and praise its proactivity in defending the rights of its members and motorhome drivers in general", understood that "it should oppose the injunction, in defense of legality and protection of the public interest underlying the contested rules'.
Now, stresses councilor Maxime Bispo, the Municipality "is calmly awaiting the court decision that may be rendered."
But the mayor hopes that, from this judicial process, lessons can be drawn and possible positive contributions to improve some of the norms of the municipal regulation for the licensing of camping and occasional caravan activities and for the exercise of motorhome activity, since this regulation, like any other, can always be improved through the experience gained from its practical application, as through the jurisprudence consolidated by the technical work of the Courts».
Maxime Bispo adds that “the Municipality of Silves has been publicly recognized as a friendly council for motorhome drivers, which is why it has been the target, in recent years, of a considerable increase in activities associated with camping, caravanning and motor caravanning, certainly due to the unquestionable presence of natural, social and cultural values throughout the municipal territory, allied to the growing search for contact with Nature, but also by the creation of service areas for motorhome drivers, or of municipal initiative (through a significant public investment in various locations municipality of Silves) or of a private nature'.
But, stresses the Silvense councilor, there have been 'camping, caravanning and motorhome activities that were often undesirable or harmful, due to an abusive use of public and natural spaces, inevitably putting their balance and collective enjoyment at risk, and thus harming local populations, as well as the occasional carrying out of these activities in inappropriate places and without any administrative license”.
This motorhome without rules even affects «the correct functioning of duly licensed enterprises, which pay fees and taxes, but which run out of customers, jeopardizing the financial stability of companies and the maintenance of jobs».
All this, underlined the mayor in his response to the Sul Informação, «forced the Municipality of Silves to regulate these practices, while creating and improving the conditions for tourists to continue to practice camping, caravanning or motor caravanning in the municipality of Silves, as a form of occupation of the municipal territory, protecting their functions environmental, economic, social and cultural, and valuing the quality of life of the populations and those who visit us».
Councilor Maxime Bispo also adds that, within the scope of the municipal regulation, the Municipality of Silves “may enter into partnership or cooperation protocols with Central Administration bodies and with entities that own, explore or manage licensed spaces for camping , caravanning and caravanning, and who knows, even with the Associação Autocaravanista de Portugal, whenever this proves to be opportune and relevant for the purposes of implementing, in the municipality of Silves, procedures and integrated and coordinated actions in the fields of camping, leisure, culture, heritage, environment and the promotion of local development'.
«It is for all these reasons that the municipal regulation in question was considered by the CCDR-Algarve as a decisive step towards the consolidation of the Regional Strategy for Hosting Motorhomes in the Algarve region, and that many of the municipalities in our country have been adopting it as a reference for the creation of its own regulations», concluded the mayor of Silvense.
While awaiting a decision by the Administrative Court of Loulé, the president of the Associação Autocaravanista de Portugal stresses that the injunction is only a «preliminary administrative action challenging the rules, which will follow its course regardless of the injunction's opinion».
Municipal regulation No. 284/2017, on the licensing of camping and occasional caravanning activities and the exercise of motorhome activities, was approved by resolution of the Silves Municipal Assembly of April 12, 2017 and is published in the Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 100, of May 24, 2017.
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