The mayors of Vila Real de Santo António and Castro Marim have demanded that the government suspends suspend the tolls in the Visa do Infante between Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António, while work is underway on the EN125.
Mayor, Maria da Conceição Cabrita, from VRSA said at a hearing in the Committee of Economy, Innovation and Public Works, that the current appalling state of the EN125 is, "seriously damaging the county in terms of tourism."
The vice-president of Castro Marim Council, Filomena Sintra, said much the same, appealing to the Government to suspend tolls, until the EN125 is actually driveable.
"The eastern EN125 is completely peripheral, it has no railway, the road network is under construction. I absolutely agree that the tolls must be suspended," said Sintra.
The mayor of Tavira, Jorge Botelho, once again referred to second class Councils, saying that this has to stop.
"The degradation of the Algarve is the degradation of the national economy. Every time we have more tourists, we also have to have quality for the residents who pay the taxes," said Botelho.
Ruling Socialist MP, Ana Passos, tried the old ‘last lot’ excuse and accused the former government of "excluding the eastern Algarve from the road upgrade process."
For the Left Bloc, "mobility in the Algarve has been in decline for about twenty years."
"The EN125 needed work and the introduction of tolls on the Via do Infante increased road accidents ... would not it be preferable to make efforts to abolish the tolls?" asked Algarve, MP João Vasconcelos.
Communist MP, Paulo Sá, agreed with everyone, saying that part of the solution to the problem of the crumbling EN125 is to "abolish tolls on the Via do Infante."
"More than a dozen times the Communist Party has proposed the abolition of tolls on the Via do Infante, and Social Democrats, Socialists and the CDS-PP vote down the proposals. This needs to be reversed," said the MP.
The chairman of the Committee, Hélder Amaral, said that the abolition of tolls "gives entitlement to compensatory indemnification to the concession holder," and that the solution will be to "reduce the cost of tolls."
Amaral’s summary to this very real problem, that can not have been news to him, was to offer a commitment that the Committee, "will try to help solve the problem of mobility in the Algarve.”
The leader of the citizens' movement, Hugo Pena, said the government was asked if it would suspend the tolls on the A22 while the roadworks on the eastern EN125 are not going ahead.
"None. We were left with no answers and no promises," concluded Pena.
The result - Lisbon 1: Algarve 0
