Loulé council has emphasised its commitment to the construction of the research centre at Fonte da Benémola near Querença, but if the project does not proceed, 'it will not be the council's fault.'
Local news service SulInformaçao reports that Loulé municipality has responded to an item in yesterday’s 'Correio da Manha' which said the €10 million investment is likely to be abandoned due to local council bureaucracy.
The Fonte da Benémola project has been put forward by the 'Arto Carpus Castelo Foundation, a Finnish non-profit organisation that has similar research centers in Finland and Russia. It replaces plans for a tourist resort and spa.
The Querança project is under the wing of landscape architect Fernando Pessoa who said that the investment is at risk of being scuppered if the feasibility request and all other necessary documentation addressed to the council is not approved by June.
Loulé council issued a press release saying it is doing everything necessary for the project to proceed but denied the suggestion that it has been sent the project request last October, claiming it only knew of the new plans in December 2013.
There are various legal time periods during the feasibility process, such as requests for information as the plan delivered by the developer had many some changes, and a meeting was arranged which took place on April 1 with the design team of the applicant which was “informed of the steps of the process."
“Drawings have to comply with the provisions in the existing legislation and if necessary in the case of the hotel an opinion of Turismo de Portugal is needed,” according to the Council which also warned of the need for the project to “meet the PDM as regards the number of floors and the need to join two farm buildings." At the meeting the council was given "a draft document for altering the number of beds under article 88-D of the PDM, for validation."
"So far the council has not been given any new information, nor have comments been made on the draft. Note that the designer intends to have a meeting with the head of service to deliver the re-drafted project” according to the Camara which is well aware that the project will only go ahead of all the paperwork has been completed by June 2014.
The council continued, 'Nowhere have the municipal services constituted a bureaucratic obstacle to the progress of the project, quite the contrary. The Department of Urbanism and its officers as appointed by the President himself have endeavored to ensure that all steps are performed in the shortest possible time in order to expedite the process."
The project to build the complex in the Fonte da Benémola area which includes laboratories, workshops, libraries, accommodation for researchers will be stopped if approvals are not in accord with the schedule of the Finnish investor Arto Takala.
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