Faro Council has approved its budget for 2019, with a planned spend of €39.7 million, €2 million up on the current year.
The priorities include renovating public areas and roads, improvement to the Parque Escolar, renovation of an obsolete municipal car park, support to local associations and parish Councils and pushing ahead with the application process for ‘Faro, European Capital of Culture.’
In terms of infrastructure, the budget caters for the construction of a campsite on Praia de Faro where the work is scheduled to start after the 2019 tourist season, doing up council houses and adding classroom space to some local schools.
With regard to the road network, the budget includes the remodeling of the Praia de Faro road and the Airport roundabout and a section of the Avenida da República / Jardim Manuel Bívar, among the projects.
Good news for those concerned with cats and dogs as an Official Collection Center will be built. The Alameda João de Deus and Mata do Liceu gardens will be remodelled and other general work carried out to local roads and public spaces.
The elephant in the Council chamber is the new bridge to Faro Island where there is still no action.
The work is urgently needed but there were no companies willing to build the bridge at the price offered by the Council in the public tender launched in November 2017.
After negotiations with Polis Litoral da Ria Formosa, there remained a deadlock so the Council has announced that it will make "an additional effort" by throwing an extra €1.12 million at the problem in the hope a company will be tempted.
This brings the construction cost for the bridge up to €3.52 million.
Comments
If this process had been carried out in Britain, the construction company would have tendered to the contract price, and would have found out later that their costs were much higher. They would then have submitted an extra bill.
I suppose that the engineers at Faro Câmara have costed the exercise, and have come up with a figure that does not allow for enough profit to the contractor. So the Câmara is doing its best to keep costs low. To me, that is a good process.