Algarve MP, Cristovão Norte, had highlighted further inconsistencies in the government’s transport policy, complaining that the new raft of discounted bus services, available only to residents in Porto and Lisbon, fail to include similar groups in the Algarve .
The Government is to include, in the 2019 State Budget, a discount scheme costing €90 million for public transport in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto.
Airline Associations have challenged the charges levied by the French-owned Portuguese airport operator, ANA.
Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have demanded the Portuguese government endorses a way forward for lower airport charges by re-negotiating the concession agreement granted to ANA.
The Algarve hotel occupancy figures for September are through, showing a year-on-year rise of 2.9% to an impressive 91.1%.
According to the data from AHETA, the Algarve hoteliers’ association, the growth was mainly due to the number of Portuguese nationals choosing to come to the Algarve for their late summer breaks.
‘Demolition man’ Sebastião Teixeira, who was forced out of Polis Litoral Ria Formosa in October 2016, to the cheery delight of Ria Formosa islanders, held on to his job as president of the Algarve’s division of the Portuguese Environment Agency.
This agency has been busy scraping the region’s clifftops bare of ‘dangerous sections’ and notably installed a new sea barrier at Dona Ana beach in Lagos, turning what once was described as ‘the world’s most beautiful beach’ into ‘an environmental crime.’
Galp Energia seems determined to continue its decline in the corporate popularity ratings. Not content with its determination to start drilling for oil of the pristine Alentejo coastline, the energy company has started charging €2 for every late payment made by its domestic customers.
Galp is a supplier in the so-called ‘deregulated’ gas and electricity market and unilaterally has decided that €2 per late bill is a good way to increase its profits.
A further example of Portugal’s food processing sector flouting environmental laws has been published on a news website.
A video shows the discharge of tomato concentrate into a tributary of the Tejo, already blighted from pollution from pulp mills and other processing plant.
The Left Bloc today presented a draft resolution to parliament that recommended that the government "urgently adopts a simplified procedure to support the victims of the fires that occurred in the Monchique, Silves, Portimão and Odemira Councils in August of this year, together with the municipalities, to ensure that the affected population and the victims are informed quickly about procedures for accessing the necessary support and that these measures are disseminated through the local channels available."
Docapesca is having to carry out urgent safety work on the wall of the former commercial port at Vila Real de Santo António, before it collapses.
The wall, "has been deteriorating rapidly, endangering people and equipment," stated the government agency that controls the nation’s commercial dock areas.
