The parking meters will return to work, in Faro, «within a month or two» and the revenue they generate will make it possible to pay the debt of the Municipal Market of Faro, «the last major financial problem that remained to be solved in the municipality», he assured the Sul Informação Rogerio Cod.
The proposal “Limited Duration Parking Management, Exploitation and Inspection Concession”, which calls for the transfer to Ambifaro of the parking meters that have been out of order since the end of 2018, was approved by the Municipal Assembly of Faro thanks to the vote in favor of a member of the socialist caucus, José Jerónimo, the president of the União de Freguesias de Conceição e Estoi. It was this vote against the current – the other socialists rejected the proposal – that made the difference in a tangent approval, with 16 votes in favor and 15 against.
In addition to the president of the socialist junta, the elements of the PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM coalition voted in favor, which elected the president of the Chamber Rogério Bacalhau, and the municipal deputy of the PAN. The votes against came from the PS, the CDU and the BE.
In statements to the Sul Informação, Rogério Bacalhau said that yesterday «the best solution was approved, if only because it is the only one» for the collection of parking meters in the city and the financial reorganization of Ambifaro, a company that joined, a few years ago, the Municipal Market of Faro, a structure facing a debt of around 10 million euros.
And the solution found was to move to Ambifaro the management of the city's parking meters, so that the revenue generated, «estimated at around one million euros per year», can be used to offset this liability.
According to Rogério Bacalhau, Ambi's annual chargesfaro with banking «are around 700 euros, between interest and amortization», so the estimated revenue from the parking meters will make it possible to meet these charges. “The money from the parking meters will be used exclusively to pay for the operation – because we have to hire staff and maintenance of the machines – and for the financial charges. That's what the proposal consisted of,” he assured.
The mayor of Faro counts getting the parking meters back up and running "in good time, probably in a month or two." This speed is only possible because the concession has been in the business sphere, even if municipal. "If it stayed in the sphere of the Chamber, it would take much longer, as it would be necessary to change personnel maps, do competitions and so on," he said.
«With the money from the parking meters, we will be able to pay the debt of the market related to its construction. Since the work was carried out, we have only managed to pay 1,5 million euros this year, with funds that we have put there, because to date it has never been possible to amortize absolutely anything», explained Rogério Bacalhau.
Thus, the approval of this proposal “resolve the problem of parking meters and the debt that we have in the market. With this, we ended up creating conditions to completely clean up the accounts of both the municipality and municipal companies».
The Farense mayor said that the merger of the former Mercado Municipal de Faro with Ambifaro, in 2014, immediately called into question the financial viability of the resulting company. “We merged the companies to reduce costs, but it is not possible to deal with the debt otherwise. We are talking about 9,5 million euros, the market would never generate revenue to pay this debt».
With the transfer of the management of parking meters to the municipal company, Rogério Bacalhau believes that this problem will no longer arise. Another advantage is that this service is transferred to the municipality, «without giving exorbitant profits to private individuals».
With the approval of this proposal, the municipal executive of the PSD manages to take forward an idea that has been cherishing since deciding not to renew the concession of parking meters to private, but that the opposition, in a majority in the Municipal Assembly of Faro, had not let it pass, at first.
In January, a first proposal by the executive of Rogério Bacalhau was rejected by the Municipal Assemblyl, having counted at the time the casting vote of the president of AM Farense, the socialist Luís Graça.
At the time, Rogério Bacalhau said that lead could lead to closure of Ambifaro, with the implications this could have. The mayor accused the opposition of wanting to "let the company die."
Already the PS spoke of "blackmail" on the part of the president of the Chamber and said that Ambifaro it was "the blue bag" of the municipality.
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