In an 11th hour climb down, the government has suspended the demolition programme aimed at destroying Ria Formosa island homes in the villages of Farol and Hangares on Culatra.
The Ministry of the Environment today announced the halt to this Thursday’s planned demolition of up to 81 further properties and now is offering a programme of cooperation with the islanders to determine which properties in Farol and Hangares are not occupied, and hence could be removed, and which are lived in by islanders and could be left standing.
The postponement to November 8th is a huge deviation from the straight and narrow path set by the Ministry with demolitions to be executed on September 27th by the discredited State agency Polis Litoral Ria Formosa whose president's determination to send in the diggers is now rumoured to hide holes in the society’s accounts.
"The 19 houses belonging to fishermen and nurserymen in Farol and Hangares on the island of Culatra should not be demolished," read today’s statement from the Ministry of the Environment, which added that the November 3rd demolitions also have been postponed to November 8th to give time for full three-way discussions - involving Polis for the first time.
The Ministry's edict instructed Sebastião 'Demolition Man' Teixeira, the president of Polis, that he "should postpone the demolitions out of respect for Parliament, which on the day set for demolitions is to hold a debate on the issue of demolitions.”
In the letter sent to Polis, "it is also stated that the houses that are used by fishermen, nurseries and those retired from these professions should not be demolished as the new strategy for the conservation of nature favours the development of traditional activities."
The Ministry claims that over the last few days there has been "intense work with the residents' associations in order to prove the employment status of the owners of the houses that will be spared." This is correct as the Minister for the Environment has spent time on the phone in discussion with island representatives.
The remaining houses are second homes, used seasonally, and some ruins, "these should be demolished in accordance with the provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Plan (POOC) which classifies this area as a risk zone,” states the Ministry, a point of view that few on the islands will disagree with.
"For homes that will not be demolished, Polis, together with property owners will look for a solution within 90 days as the properties are still in a risk zone," added the Ministry.
"The commitment to evaluate the houses one-by-one, as announced by the Ministry of Environment in parliament on September 27, has been honoured," concludes the Ministry led by João Pedro Matos Fernandes.
This is a major victory for the islanders for whom support has grown exponentially during a long and tiring campaign. The State's plan to remove as many properties as possible, using the over-zealous Polis president as a blunt instrument with the full force of the law, was to needlessly displace families who have grown up on the islands and for whom no other home could ever be the same.
The sub-plot of a tourist development near Farol has yet to be explained and the Polis annual accounts might make interesting reading and certainly should be examined by an independent authority.
Polis is due to be wound up this December but 'Demolition Man' Teixeira lives on as he also is head of the Algarve's regional environment agency and, as such, has been in charge of destroying much of the appeal of the Algarve's finest beaches.
Below is the offical communication to the media from the Ministry of the Environment of the Portuguese Republic:
Demolições avançam na Ilha da Culatra,
deixando de fora as usadas por viveiristas e pescadores
As 19 casas que são pertença de pescadores e viveiristas, nos aglomerados do Farol e dos Hangares, não deverão ser demolidas.
O Ministério do Ambiente escreveu hoje à Sociedade Polis da Ria Formosa comunicando que a data da tomada da posse administrativa das casas (27 de outubro), deverá ser adiada, por respeito à Assembleia da República, que nesse mesmo dia discute um conjunto de recomendações ao Governo sobre este tema.
8 de novembro é agora a data recomendada para a tomada da posse administrativa.
Na carta é também afirmado que as casas que são utilizadas por pescadores, viveiristas e reformados destas profissões não deverão ser demolidas, uma vez que a nova estratégia para a Conservação da Natureza privilegia o desenvolvimento das atividades tradicionais.
Nos últimos dias houve um intenso trabalho conjunto com as associações de moradores com o objetivo de fazer prova do estatuto profissional dos donos das casas que serão poupadas.
As restantes casas, que são segundas habitações usadas sazonalmente e algumas ruínas, deverão ser demolidas de acordo com o previsto no POOC que classifica esta área como zona de risco.
Para as casas que não serão demolidas, deverá a Polis, em conjunto com os interessados, procurar uma solução no prazo de 90 dias, uma vez que também estas se encontram em zona de risco.
Todas as casas correspondem a ocupações ilegítimas do domínio público marítimo. O compromisso de avaliar casa a casa, anunciado pelo Ministério do Ambiente na Assembleia da República no dia 27 de setembro, foi honrado.
Lisboa, 25 de outubro de 2016
