Island homeowners in the Ria Formosa natural area do not accept the demolition orders made by Polis Litoral Ria Formosa and are to fight the draconian measures in court.
Two weeks ago, many property owners on Faro Island received letters from Polis Litoral Ria Formosa stating that they must leave their properties by a certain date.
This action is part of the general tidying up of the natural area that stretches from Faro to Tavira and is headed by Polis Litoral Ria Formosa, an organisation which is part-controlled by three east Algarve councils.
The government's rather fanciful reason for the removal of these homes is to avoid the need to rescue people and property in the event of storms,
“We do not want scenes of destruction by the sea, as witnessed in Fuseta some years ago, repeated elsewhere, there are people and assets to be protected in places where there should not be people or assets," said environment minister Jorge Moreira da Silva in June this year, using one of the more inventive reasons for clearing away these inconvenient properties.
In the eviction letters, property owners were given a deadline of November 28 to clear out their properties and deliver their keys to the office of Polis Litoral Ria Formosa.
If they do not comply they can be charged for the demolition of their own properties, similar to the families of executed Chinese prisoners being sent a bill for the bullet.
Residents had 15 days to object in writing, a deadline that ran out today in most cases and many are reported to have done so with court action, if the courts were functioning, the last resort.
Injunctions rapidly are becoming the only option for locals to save the destruction of their assets at the hands of the state, rather than the weather.
The demolition orders include many principal dwellings where it had been agreed with Faro council that the residents could stay, thus relieving the council of finding new accommodation for any displaced locals.
The master plan is to remove 808 homes at Praia de Faro, Hangares, Farol and its islets.
On the one hand Faro council wants to see the properties saved and wants the property owners, mostly poor fishermen, to be able to continue living there.
On the other hand Faro, along with Olhão and Tavira councils, partly own Polis Litoral Ria Formosa which is intent on a cosmetic cleansing of inconvenient locals and indeed was the very organisation that issued the demolition oders with harsh penalties for non-adherents.
Faro mayor Rogério Bacalhau needs decide whose side he is on; the voters who elected him or a state machine determined to evict many of Faro's most economically disadvantaged residents.
