Loulé, European City of Sport for next year, is to get a new skateboarding park for the area's young to enjoy.
The construction of the 'Parque de Desportos Radicais – Skate Parque de Loulé' will be completed in six weeks at a cost of €127,000.
The skateboarding park will cover 18,000 m2 and is to have landscaped areas and trees dotted throughout, "This is a new service for our youth, who have a very big appetite for this type of sport. It’s there for them to use up their energy and to have fun," according to the mayor as he signed off the order for the work.
Loulé will be a European City of Sport in 2015 and this investment fits in with the creation of spaces in which ‘Louletanos' can play sports in an informal manner, according to the mayor Vítor Aleixo on the day the final decision of the Association of European Cities and Capitals of Sport (ACES Europe) was announced.
Aleixo seems to have learned the essential art of leadership – find out where the people are going and get in front of them.
Public consultations, the renovation of a dull city square, sympathetic city centre renovations, parish projects chosen by locals, support of animal welfare organisations - is there no end to his deftly handled munificence?
As long as the figures add up, and many of his initiatives have attracted external funding, there is little reason to look cynically at his achievements to date.
The purchase of the Café Calcinha in Loulé was a step in the wrong direction and attracted attention as the reasons for the purchase of this emblematic sire were poorly explained but this is outweighed by an inclusive attitude towards his ratepayers who fund the council's many services.
