Portimão council is to replace the firefighting truck that was burnt-out in the June 12th fire near Marmalete, Monchique.
The council is in talks with the Municipal Civil Protection Service and the Volunteer Firefighters of Portimão to replace the €122,160 truck that was handed over to the fire service in 2014.
This forest firefighting vehicle originally had been supplied with an 85% grant and the council says it already has taken the necessary steps to replace the essential appliance at a cost of €145,000, irrespective of any further grants.
Monchique council already has chipped in to support the immediate replacement of the vehicle, seeing as it was destroyed when dealing with a fire on Monchique’s territory.
Portimão council remains the most indebted council in the Algarve.
Comments
When politicians get involved with businessmen money inevitably finds a way of "leaking" out of the deal, for local confirmation look at the hundreds of thousands of euros that have mysteriously disappeared from companies and businesses affiliated with or run by councils in the Algarve.
From its very beginnings the whole Autodromo operation made Bernie Madoff look like an amateur at getting money out of people, the list of Autodromo unpaid creditors could fill a thick phonebook, between bankruptcy, bailouts, debt restructuring, debt forgiveness, court administration, call it what you will, the Autodromo has proven over the past 8 years to be a badly thought out, incompetently run, financial disaster, instead of spending his time getting the place to run properly Paulo Pinheiro the CEO appears have been with lawyers, accountants and PR people finding different ways to avoid paying people what they were owed.
You only have to look at some of the opaque ploys being used regarding the Autodromo's latest bailout by Portugal Capital Ventures, (i.e. Portugal's taxpayers), that are mainly designed to try and baffle anyone attempting to get a true picture of the deal, to see that concise, effective, open management is not in Mr. Pinheiro's area of expertise.
Also, can anyone tell me why after the latest taxpayer funded bailout has Mr. Pinheiro the person ultimately responsible for overseeing these multi-million euro losses over the past 8 years been left in charge of spending taxpayers money?
Go figure!
I do not have a problem with people wanting to have some fun however not at the expense of the general local population. Why not put a noise limit on the vehicles who race there, then I guess I'm missing the point!?