The concession of the boat crossing of the estuary channel between Cabanas and the beach is the responsibility of Docapesca and not of Tavira City Council, assured Ana Paula Martins, president of that autarchy, in statements to the Sul Informação.
The mayor added that the public tender for river transport in Cabanas de Tavira was started "several years ago" by Docapesca which, "after submitting the applications, decided to exclude all competitors". However, "two of them appealed to the court".
The court process, as far as Ana Paula Martins knows, «took a long time before a decision was reached, which forced Docapesca to accept the proposals of those two competitors who appealed». One of them, however, “gave up”.
Recently, Docapesca, even invoking the new competences of the municipality in this area, sent the process to the Chamber so that this entity could deal with the concession contract with the only candidate resistant, the same one that today provides the service for crossing the estuary, based on a «provisional license».
However, stressed the mayor, «we understand that Docapesca has to finish the process and then hand us the contract, since we were not part of the process, we did not know it, we did not even participate in the jury» .
The Council of Tavira «didn't have a say in anything while the process was going on, which was all developed by Docapesca, so we consider, based on a legal opinion, that Docapesca should make the concession», concluded Ana Paula Martins.
The mayor thus responded to one of the accusations "without any foundation" that are made to the Municipality by the Civic Movement "For a Pedestrian Bridge to the beach of Cabanas", according to which the Chamber «in spite of the population, it intends to grant the exclusivity of the crossing for another 25 years».
Questioned about the validity of the proposal for a pedestrian bridge, which would replace the noisy and polluting boat crossings in that area of the Ria Formosa, Ana Paula Martins guarantees that the Tavira Chamber also defends this solution, contrary to what the Civic Movement affirm.
The mayor revealed that the Municipality itself had recently carried out, on its own initiative, «a small preliminary study, which contains two possible locations for a pedestrian bridge».
This study was sent "for the opinion of the competent authorities", in this case the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and the Ria Formosa Natural Park (PNRF).
«The APA informally replied that the construction of any access in that location violated the POOC in force».
The PNRF, for its part, «replied to us that one of the possible locations could obtain its favorable opinion, provided that the Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out».
Faced with this position of the Park, the APA will have changed its position slightly, informing the Council that "it could admit this access in a future revision of the POOC".
Now, stressed the mayor, «I am not going to spend money from the public purse and the time of our technicians, who already have so much to occupy themselves with, doing a project, when for now we have an unfavorable opinion from the APA».
It is not that the Tavira Council has given up on the idea. Your guardian just finds it more useful buy this war when the time comes. «We will go to that fight when the POOC of this zone is under review, which is not the case now», he clarified in his statements to the Sul Informação.
«Tavira is in a highly sensitive area, with numerous constraints», he underlined. «That the APA admits that a bridge could be considered in a future POOC is already a victory!».
The Civic Movement “For a Pedestrian Bridge to Cabanas beach” announced, for next Sunday, at 19 pm, a human cord on the walkway of Marginal de Cabanas de Tavira, to fight for the creation of access on foot.
In the communiqué announcing this demonstration, the Movement also launched several accusations to the Chamber of Tavira.
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