«Under the terms of the decision of the Administrative Court of Loulé, it is not up to the Municipality of Lagoa to answer to the Court, but to CCDR Algarve. The Municipality was responsible for forwarding the Judge's order to the CCDR and requesting that they proceed in accordance with it. What was done on 26/05/2021 and reiterated on 30/06/2021». The explanation was given to the Sul Informação by Luís Encarnação, mayor of Lagoa, in response to the statement issued yesterday by Almargem, on the case of Alagoas Brancas.
"Consequently, if anyone is at fault in this process, it is certainly not the Municipality of Lagoa, which, incidentally, as stated and reaffirmed several times, is calmly awaiting the court decision to, as always, comply with and enforce the Law." added the mayor of Lagos.
According to a statement from Almargem and the Civic Association Cidade da Participação, the Administrative Court of Loulé decided to maintain the injunction preventing the start of works in the so-called Alagoas Brancas, for the fact that the Lagoa Council has not sent, to the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), within 20 working days, «all relevant information» about the project.
Now, guarantees the mayor of Lagoa, it was not up to the Municipality to answer to the Court, but to CCDR Algarve.
Luís Encarnação, in a statement, even says that thereInformation released yesterday by Almargem and the Civic Association Cidade da Participação it is "the version, necessarily partial and subjective, of one of the parties involved in the pending judicial litigation".
In fact, he argues, the only true fact of the statement released by the two associations is that «the Administrative and Tax Court of Loulé rejected a request, presented by the Counter-Interested “Buildings Atlântico SA”, to declare the forfeiture of the granted injunction , in the resolutive term, on 21.05.2021».
Here is the explanation of the Municipality of Lagoa, to «restore the truth of the facts:
«a) The decision of TAF Loulé of 21.05.2021, which decreed, at a fixed resolutive term, the suspension of the act of approval of the subdivision project titled by "Buildings Atlântico SA", was subject to appeal, with mere devolutive effect, for the Central Administrative Court of the South, an appeal that only on 14.07.2021 was raised to such judicial instance;
b) The TAF Loulé decision determined that the CCDR-Algarve should analyze the Study called “Valuation of Wetlands of the Algarve”, prepared by the “Almargem- Association for the Defense of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Algarve”, based on the criteria established in the Annex III of DL 151-B/ 2013 of 31 October and within 20 working days, under the comission provided for in the final part of art. 3rd paragraph 4 of the Legal Regime of Environmental Impact Assessment, further establishing such a sentence that, after a period of 20 working days after notification of the CCDR-Algarve by the Municipality of Lagoa, the injunction shall lapse;
c) The Municipality of Lagoa, notwithstanding the appeal referred to in a) and considering its merely devolutive effect, duly complied with the decision of TAF Loulé and sent, on 26.05.2021, to the CCDR-Algarve, the study named “Valuation of Wetlands in the Algarve”,
d) The CCDR-Algarve understood that such a study would in itself be insufficient to initiate a procedure of prior assessment and decision to be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment pursuant to the provisions of art. 3 of the respective legal regime, position that, on 07.06.2021, the Municipality of Lagoa gave due account to TAF Loulé, for the purposes deemed convenient;
e) On 30.06.2021 and in view of the absence of any instruction or guidance issued by TAF Loulé in view of the position assumed on 31.05.2021 by CCDR-Algarve and communicated to TAF Loulé on 07.06.2021, the Municipality of Lagoa decided to provide, by motu proprio, some additional clarifications to CCDR-Algarve;
f) In view of such additional clarifications, the CCDR-Algarve decided, in turn, and in compliance with the order in the sentence of 21.05.2021, that the study “Valorisation of Wetlands of the Algarve”, submitted by the Municipality of Lagoa in 26.05.2021, sufficient to initiate a procedure of prior appraisal and decision of submission to the EIA, pursuant to article 3, paragraph 4 of the RJAIA (based on a case-by-case analysis) having then requested the pronouncements of ICNF,/DRCNF Algarve and APA/ARH Algarve in matters of biodiversity and water resources, and the response of these entities must be received by the 16th of July.
g) On July 01.07.2021, 21.05.2021, the Interested Party “Buildings Atlântico SA”, considering that the resolutive term contained in TAF Loulé's judgment of May 21.05.2021, XNUMX, requested the declaration of expiry of the injunction issued on May XNUMX, XNUMX. ;
h) TAF Loulé, by order of 07.07.2021, rejected such request for a declaration of forfeiture, a decision which, on 16.07.2021, the aforementioned Counter-Party filed an appeal with the Central Administrative Court of the South, with devolutive effects».
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