The Left Bloc has proposed that a special tourist tax is created to enable users of the Algarve’s Via do Infante to use the motorway for free.

This is one of measures that the party presented during last week's debate on the 2018 State Budget.

The Praia Grande Eco-Resort, planned to be constructed in countryside between Armação de Pêra and Galé, has been slammed by a group of environmental organisations which claim the project "is clearly oversized, illegal and destructive of the public heritage."

Millennium Bank has ended up as the owner of the project after property development companies Finalgarve and then Galilei, went bust.

Loulé council is to authorise work at the city’s main church, a national monument, which will have its altarpieces restored, the entrance area repaired and the structure restored in order to solve various technical and safety problems.

The area around the Igreja de S. Clemente, in the snappily named ‘Largo do Batalhão dos Sapadores dos Caminhos de Ferro,’ also will be improved.

The postponement of the construction of the Central Hospital of the Algarve is a "serious and irreparable injustice" according to local MP, Cristóvão Norte, who has been picking through the State Budget for 2018, spotting the almost complete lack on investment planned for the region next year.

Norte’s list of projects that were promised but that will not go ahead or will be pushed into 2019, include the EN125 remodeling in the eastern Algarve, the dredging and extension to Portimão’s quayside, the rail link to Faro airport and the bridge to link Alcoutim to Spain.

Representatives from Tavira council, Tavira’s ‘Ciência Viva’ centre and the Almargem environmental association have committed to work as one, to sort out the Pego do Inferno beauty spot and environs, that were blighted by fire in 2012.

At a meeting on Thursday, to discuss the Asseca valley, the delegates were presented with a document written three years ago by Rita Borges from the science centre in Tavira, which reported on a survey of the problems at Pego do Inferno such as overcrowding and litter.

The total organic farming area in Portugal has grown 22% in just four years, according to data released today by Eurostat. Between 2012 and 2016, Portugal recorded an increase of 45,000 hectares of land now classified as 'organic.'

As at the end of 2016, Portugal had 245,052 hectares of certified organic farm land, including land that has been converted to organic agricultural production from chemical-rich and additive-heavy farming.

The sacking of Isabel dos Santos from the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, could have an impact on Portugal’s Galp Energia, according to analysts.

Galp Energia's ‘speculative angle’ may be reinforced due to changes in Sonangol's leadership, according to the investment team at BPI.

The University of the Algarve has a new Rector after Paulo Águas was elected today, amid stiff competition.

The votes counted on Wednesday led to an inconclusive result so the members of the General Council of the Algarve University met again today, November 16, and decided to elect the current head of the School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism, who obtained 16 votes, against 14 voyes for Efigénio Rebelo.