It’s the end of the road for the residents of the Faro Island camp site, the scene of a long-running battle between the residents and Faro Council which has voted to move them on to make way for tourist facilities.
The Council now has scrapped the agreement that was in place with the Association representing the occupants of the camp site and the residents will have to move on September 15, 2019, or be moved.
The proposal presented by Faro’s mayor, Rogério Bacalhau, unanimously was approved on Monday and a tender was issued the same day, "to select the company that will carry out the contract for the construction of a campsite in Praia de Faro,” timed to start in a year’s time.
This move by the Council ends a leasing agreement that allowed the Association’s members exclusive use of the area which ceased being used as a camping site in 2003.
In 2015, the Council threatened the 140 campsite dwellers with eviction, claiming it wanted to turn the area into a car park. The campsite had lost its licence in 2003, so residents decided to run the place themselves. Each is charged €70-a-month for space and has access to water and electricity.
Some residents have been there for years and claim they now have ‘acquired rights.’
The Council claims that locals want the camp site to be run as a camp site for the benefit of tourists, not for the benefit of long-term occupants. The plan is to have 200 tent spaces, 84 of them for large tents, and 24 spaces for motor-homes.
Legally, none of those using the space are registered as being in their primary homes so the council sees their eviction as a simple matter.
If there are any first home dwellers, (the Association claims there are nine) the mayor, with uncharacteristic backbone, says this is a problem for the Association, not for the Council.
