Several illegal building licences issued in the Silves council area, when Isabel Soares was mayor, have been identified by the Inspector General of Local Administration and are forming part of a wide ranging investigation into the council’s processes and activities when supposedly serving those who wished to fulfill their dreams of building their own home.
The new Plano Diretor Municipal, or PDM, for Silves was promised for mid-2013 but a year later it still is held up as planning procedures that were not followed, which resulted in the issuing of illegal licences, are being investigated.
The delay in signing off the new PDM directly is associated with irregularities detected by the Inspector General of Local Administration for home construction licences issued between 2002 and 2008.
Some of the licences were issued despite the construction areas being in Agricultural Reserve Land and Ecological Reserve Land and have been considered void by IGAL, yet were OK with the council at the time planning permission was sought and given.
Some unwitting house owners have resorted to the Administrative Court of Loulé as they have discovered that their properties were in fact illegally built despite having had their construction licences approved by Silves Council.
Many home owners are not in a position to afford costly court proceedings and lawyer’s bills and face losing their properties as they are illegally built and thus un-saleable. Others who were building to sell on have been stuck with bank mortgages backed by a now worthless asset and may face foreclosure and bankruptcy.
The Inspector General of Local Administration did consider removing Isabel Soares from office in much the same way that Macario Correia was removed from his post as mayor in Faro over planning irregularities when he was mayor of Tavira.
The new executive in Silves led by mayor Rosa Palma now is faced with a mound of illegal properties for which the council issued building licences and hence may be responsible for restitution.
Asked by Correio de Manha, the council stated that "orders have been issued to the council departments involved which are being evaluated for all irregularities during a review process," and the entire process is being monitored by the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development and the Regional Directorate of Agriculture.
On the 22nd of May there will be an extraordinary meeting at Silves town hall to discuss this situation, followed by a progress report on the review process.
In the meantime, homeowners sit in their illegal, un-saleable homes wondering how, if their local council issued a building licence, things could have gone so very wrong.
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Readers who now know they have been issued with licences which have been later deemed illegal are welcome to contact info@algarvedailynews.com.
