Quinta da Rocha development - public meeting 'was hardly advertised'

Paul 03 February 2015

rocha Butwell Trading and Investment Services SA’s proposed Tourism Development Centre on the banks of the Ria de Alvor, Portimão is planning to use the very land that the Court of Loulé already has decreed is 'restricted and should be returned to its natural state.'

The Ria de Alvor Monitoring Group, comprising eco-groups A Rocha, Almargem, GEOTA, LPN, Qercus and SPEA, did manage to get to a largely unadvertised public meeting, and has released a statement slamming the proposal before the deadline for the public consultation period this Friday.

Butwell’s 'Tourism Development Centre' is planned to be built on the same land that company was ordered to leave well alone, apart from replacing the habitat it already had destroyed to the detriment of many species.

‘Tourism Development Centre’ is an attempt at a cuddly name for two holiday villages, two 5-star hotels, a total of 300 beds on an area of just over 200 hectares.

The man behind Butwell, eco-vandal Aprígio Santos, is determined to turn the riverside estate into to a money making scheme to the detriment of the sensitive environment.

Tiago Branco from A Rocha in an interview with Sul Informaçao, said the Monitoring Group will make a written submission and formally participate in any public consultation to explain the "many issues that arise" with the proposed leisure development.

The owner of Quinta da Rocha, Butwell Trading, will need to forward some good arguments as the estate already is subject to a court ruling, the proposed buildings are too close to the water making it almost impossible obtain overriding planning permission and the estate is also in the European Natura 2000 zone.

Sul Informaçao reports that already there are devious tactics at play as yesterday afternoon there was a public session held in Mexilhoeira Grande to ‘enlighten’ people as to the proposed Tourism Development Centre and its benefits to civilisation.

The session was organised by the parish council of Mexilhoeira Grande with the support of Portimão Council which sent along the director of its Urban Planning department and an architect from the same department.

This session was not announced to the media, was well concealed on the Freguesia website and facebook page and was set for 14:30 on a workday at very short notice.

None-the-less, a surprising number of interested parties did get to hear of the meeting and made the trip to listen to the positive spin given by the council which already has commented that this first public consultation period is 'just to get a feel for what people think.'

With seemingly insurmountable legal and environmental obstacle to overcome, Aprígio Santos may have met his match but if the council is swayed by the siren call of 'jobs, jobs and more jobs,' this may help overcome legal obstacles.

There is always the discredited Project of Potential National Interest (PIN) route which enables Lisbon to override local objections. This scheme was used to give permission to Parkalgar to build the Autodrome, and for other developments in sensitive areas where normally no permission would have been granted to build.

This proposed Quinta da Rocha development certainly is set to highlight a contest between the rule of environmental and planning law and old style developers who are used to obtaining planning permission in areas where no mere mortal would ever get the go-ahead.

If already the consultation process is being manipulated by Portimão council with quietly announced public meetings called at inconvenient times at short notice in tiny meeting places, we can expect more devious moves by a council desperate for money and a tradition of amoral behaviour.

UPDATE 4th February 2015

Portimão council has decided to extend the consultation period for the proposed Quinta da Rocha development until February 20th, 2015.

The decision to extend the period which was to end on February 6th was due to the sensitivity and importance for the future of the county of the project concerned.

The authority said that as only two comments so far had been registered, the extension gave some time for people to send in considered responses and observations.