Vila Real de Santo António council has decided to deter shoppers in the city for 30 years by allowing a widespread parking meter scheme in return for a monthly fee.
Parking meters in and around the city centre already have been installed to the horror of local shopkeepers who fear less trade will result. More meters are planned, bringing the total to 1,800.
The wider area covered by parking meters will go live at the beginning of July, neatly coinciding with the beginning of the holiday season in a move almost designed to deter tourists and shoppers from out of town.
The blinkered council measure aims to create a higher income from parking charges and claims that two dozen jobs will be created just to run the scheme.
There soon will be a total of 1,800 metered car parking spaces in the centre of Vila Real de Santo António with summertime charges of 80 cents an hour and 60 cents in the winter when shoppers across the eastern Algarve and from Spain come to see the Christmas Fair and do their shopping.
More bizarrely, those resident in the city can get exemptions for up to three cars each and will pay no charges.
These exemptions are designed solely to get the deal through the council assembly and inevitably will be short-term as residents will take up most of the available spaces and the concession holder will need to start charging them or raising the hourly parking rates to incomers.
It is not yet known if those who drive into the city to work will be covered by the exemption.
The company that won the tender is called Estacionamentos à Superfície e Subterrâneos, or ESSE for short and now has a 30-year contract.
ESSE is to pay €400,000 to VRSA council at the start of the term and will pay the council ‘never less’ than €15,000 a month thereafter.
Comments
If you go to park free in Ayamonte, you can just nip over to VRSA on the ferry to do your shopping. Result!
Sadly there are places public transport just can't reach. But are you seriously telling us you are daft enough to drive to Spain (incurring motorway toll?) just to avoid paying for parking or using the free spaces which are not more than a few hundred metres from the VRSA shops? Motorists are even crazier than I thought!
Sadly, it's a worldwide problem. As soon as someone buys or even rents a car, they think they own the road, and should be able to park wherever and whenever they choose. I think you meant to say excellent rail service, by the way.
Excellent bus services to VRSA, good bus services, ferry from Ayamonte, even taxi services are around. What more do moaners want?
Public transport? Please advise....
I don't think this news item is biased or dreadful at all. It's the council wanting to charge people to park and the shopkeepers saying this is not sensible as of course it will put people off. Using the train is not exactly convenient schedule-wise or when carrying shopping. Olhao parking is free by the park to the west where there is a big area. We park there and walk into the market, it's about 3 or 4 minutes which when carrying out shopping is enough. If you want the cars out of the city, put down yellow lines. Parking meters will not keep cars from the city centre.
Olhao has meters along the Avenida and near the markets, balanced with acres of free parking near the hotel, in fact a large new section has just been created near the police station to encourage people to visit, park for free and enjoy the city. VRSA with 1,800 parking meters will deter people driving there to shop, me for one.