‘Demolition man’ Sebastião Teixeira, who was forced out of Polis Litoral Ria Formosa in October 2016, to the cheery delight of Ria Formosa islanders, held on to his job as president of the Algarve’s division of the Portuguese Environment Agency.
This agency has been busy scraping the region’s clifftops bare of ‘dangerous sections’ and notably installed a new sea barrier at Dona Ana beach in Lagos, turning what once was described as ‘the world’s most beautiful beach’ into ‘an environmental crime.’
Quercus removed the Gold Quality status of Dona Ana beach in 2015, saying at the time that the €1.8 million project pushed though by Teixeira, "significantly altered the beach’s natural landscape” and “jeopardised the conservation of highly diversified marine ecosystems.”
Such is the world of politics that Teixeira now has been released from the top job at APA Algarve, replaced by José Pacheco, the landscape architect who was selected to run Polis after Teixeira’s uncomfortable exit.
José Pacheco (pictured below) once held the post of director of the Ria Formosa Natural Park and is noted for his lack of willingness to engage with the media.
Sebastião Teixeira became a figure of hatred for the islanders of Faro Island and Culatra, going head-to-head with Olhão Mayor Antóio Pina who became the hero of the islanders' struggle when he lodged a court action to halt the demolitions – using the now famous ‘chameleon defence’ which argued that demolishing island habitat would disadvantage this rare island creature.
Pina is turning from hero to villain as demolitions start on Armona this week and the question of 140 illegally located properties - the majority, if not all, built with Council permission - remains to be resolved with British couple, Paul Roseby and James Tod, still waiting for the minister to make good his word and incorporate this peninsula into the island's permitted urban area, thus allowing them to complete their 'dream home.'
Sebastião Teixeira never got on with his boss, João Pedro Matos Fernandes and foolishly upstaged the environment minister by continuing to send out demolition notices when the had minister assured parliament that this process was on hold.
Despite over 400 properties being demolished in the Ria Formosa islands, (the ‘demolition man’ sobriquet is well earned), this is way below the number called for in the social engineering programme that is enshrined in the coastal development plan.
José António Pacheco currently is overseeing the winding up of Polis Litoral Ria Formosa at the end of its 12-year life and, in his new job at the head of the APA Algarve, will have the unenviable task of managing Sebastião Teixeira who remains employed as a senior engineer.
José Pacheco, the new president of the Portuguese Environment Agency's Algarve division
