Portimão councillors and planning experts unanimously have rejected a planning application put forward by Butwell Trading to turn its 200 hectare Quinta da Rocha estate into a tourist complex including two, five star hotels.
Taking a firm environmental and legal standpoint, a committee of Portimão councillors and experts has rejected plans for a Tourism Development Center on the banks of the Ria de Alvor due in part to a history of law-breaking and environmental abuse.
The project was put forward by Butwell Trading, Services and Investments SA, controlled by eco-vandal businessman Aprígio Santos (pictured) whose activities at Quinta da Rocha has led to protracted court cases and fines for environmental damage at the protected site.
Butwell is registered in the free zone of Madeira and is a subsidiary of Imoholding which is owned by Aprígio Santos.
Butwell’s proposal was rejected as it was neither clear nor credible. The committee of councillors and experts also were well aware of what had been going on at the estate, the history of callous disregard for environmental laws and the substantial fines handed out by Loulé court.
Butwell was found guilty in the Loulé court in 2012 for crimes against nature and for the deliberate destruction of protected species and their habitats at Quinta da Rocha.
Butwell then was fined €140,000 under Portugal’s new environmental protection laws in July 2015 by the Judicial Court in Portimão which penalised the company for ignoring the Loulé earlier court order that it stops damaging the Quinta da Rocha estate and that Butwell makes good the damage already caused to the estate’s rare habitats.
Eco-vandal Santos’ track record ensured his plan, proposed by Butwell, had 'undermined the professional integrity of the applicant' and cast suspicion as to ‘the suitability and integrity of the proposer for the development of this project.’
The project presented by Butwell was riddled with weaknesses and had omissions that put the project under deep suspicion.
The special jury convened at Portimão council was chaired by the Vice President of the council Joaquim Castelão Rodrigues, and drew on the expertise of two municipal architects, and technical representatives from Turismo de Portugal, the CCDR Algarve and the Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests.
The decision needs to be ratified by a full municipal assembly but this will be a formality after a unanimous decision.
Praise for a correct decision from Portimão is swamped by congratulations to environmental organisation A Rocha which led the Ria de Alvor Monitoring Group, comprising A Rocha, Almargem, GEOTA, LPN, Quercus and SPEA.
Members of the public whose stubborn refusal to let yet another millionaire from Portugal's business elite ride rough-shod over the laws that the rest of the country's residents have to follow.
The consultation process at first was being manipulated by Portimão council which quietly announced public meetings at inconvenient times at short notice in tiny meeting places. This old style tactic simply no longer works with motivated locals now engaged in social networks.
The man behind Butwell, Aprígio Santos, bought the Quinta da Rocha estate for an unconfirmed €14 million, a price that reflected its development potential. Santos may be a vandal but he also is a skilled property developer, albeit one with hundreds of millions of debt.
His next move may surprise us all - and there is bound to be a next move as his pride and his money now are both at stake.
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