The government may bang on about transparency and accountability but local councils continue to act in a covert, furtive and secretive manner, especially when big money is involved, twisting or ignoring environmental rules and fobbing off the public.
Environmental organisation Almargem has demanded a halt to the work of building a network of cement paths across a cliff-top beauty spot in the western Algarve and that a wide-ranging discussion takes place as to the future of Ponta da Piedade near Lagos.
Almargem issued a statement today, October 19, aimed directly at Lagos council which has blessed the laying of concrete paths in an ecological zone and says that the project agreed with the Algarve Environment Agency, the agency responsible for the appallingly insensitive work at the nearby Praia Dona Ana, is to reduce the impact of visitors on the fragile coastal ecosystems.
This is yet another of ‘demolition man’ Sebastião’s Teixeira’s feats of environmental vandalism for which now he is infamous. This latest environmentally sensitive technique used by his agency is to pour gravel onto a layer of geotextile blanket and then cover it with cement.
This is about as un-environmentally friendly as an environment agency could dream up and locals demand to know why this unsympathetic construction method has been selected for an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The concrete path project, supported by Lagos council, was designed by “HB, a landscape architecture company that almost exclusively is involved in urban parks and tourist resort projects, including at the 'Cascade Resort’ which has made itself available to financially support this project because it owns much of the land around Ponta da Piedade," says Almargem.
The concrete is being laid in the first phase of the works between the Cascade Resort and Ponta da Piedade, with completion scheduled for the year-end. The idea is to create “wooden walkways and gravel floors covered with concrete.” says Almargem.
"Either or both of these interventions have significant negative impacts on the environment," claims the association, adding that having a path or walkway will do nothing to stop people going off-road and trampling on paths to the cliff edge, the principal problem that needed addressing.
Almargem has a list of cheaper options to ensure the natural area remains as natural as possible while shepherding visitors along pre-defined paths that have not had concrete poured along their length.
Lagos allowed the concrete paths idea to go ahead without any form of public consultation which would have given interested parties a chance to comment and contribute. Almargem’s proposal for community involvement was rejected out of hand by the council and the project went ahead.
Locals, including biologist Dina Savador, are up in arms over what they describe as hugely damaging work to install the concrete pathways across a nationally important headland at Ponte da Piedade.
The council sees the laying of concrete paths in an ecological area in a different light with Socialist Party councillor, Joaquina Matos, speaking about the project in Lagos last week, promising, "we will continue the requalification of Ponta da Piedade," describing the concrete as a "sustainable intervention.”
Dina Salvador wrote earlier this month, that “The work of the ‘requalification of Ponta da Piedade,’ the responsibility of Lagos council, is underway and has been generating immense controversy.
“It is a place of rare beauty, of great geological, geomorphological, paleontological interest and of geoconservation and of fauna and flora. The requalification and preservation of this place is an important goal that really should have been started years ago.
“Now this important part of the natural beauty of Lagos and one of its biggest tourist attractions, is under serious threat. Every year, human traffic is increasing which is resulting in trampling and erosion of this delicate ecosystem.
"However the current work in progress, widening and extending the existing paths, covering them with a white geotextile blanket, tipping a layer of gravel on top of the blanket and then adding an 8cm layer of porous concrete, not only is an eyesore but is a serious and permanent threat to natural surroundings – in particular to soil, plant and animal health.”
But there’s more. Part of the two kilometre stretch of cliff-top between Ponta da Piedade and Praia de Dona Ana has been fenced off to thwart walkers as, claims Almargem, “at least two of the owners of the land involved want to secure a big deal, having already illegally sectioned off their land to prevents the passage of hikers along the existing tracks, and trying to ensure that two or three old ruins can be the basis of the greatest possible number of luxurious houses."
Almargem adds that The Cascade Wellness & Lifestyle Resort may well be footing much of HB’s bill to install the paths and for work to widen an important access road to what could become a new villa development in an area of outstanding natural beauty along an emblematic naturall area.
This plan B would explain why the council does not want biologists, environmentalists or any other -ists, let alone indignant members of the public, wishing to express their opinions in an open forum as the deal already seems to have been done.
It appears, yet again, that the the Ministry for the Environment is a misnomer and that money is listened to, not locals.
