Albufeira beach restaurant project slammed by environmental association

In a covert operation supported by the Algarve’s environmental agency, headed by ‘Demolition Man’ Sebastião Teixeira, the foundations for a beach restaurant have been sunk metres deep in an area close to the sea at Praia do Peneco, Albufeira.

This site is not earmarked for a restaurant in the existing Burgau-Vilamoura coastal development plan nor is it mentioned in the most recent Odeceixe-Vilamoura plan which, anyway, has yet to be implemented.

Environmental association, Almargem, has issued a statement outlining its deep concern and demanding the work stops immediately and a full explanation given as to how the local council and the environment agency have allowed this project to commence.

Almargem says it is not against the provision of tourist infrastructure but rightly notes that there is much discussion about the risks to Portugal’s coastal zone, “largely due to climate change,” and notes that the new building and infrastructure is in an area that is likely to be affected by the incoming sea and where previous nearby structures succumbed to the waves years ago.

Almargem, “requires the immediate cessation and reversal of the works in question and a much greater transparency and public scrutiny on the part of the bodies responsible for the management and defence of the environment and natural resources.”

This last comment is perhaps the most important, this building is being erected without the knowledge, until now, of those responsible for the multiple layers of regulation that dominate even the simplest of construction projects that citizens and State bodies must follow.

It seems the council and the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente are acting in collaboration without having to explain how this project has been legally authorised, hardly ‘open government’ but not unexpected when short-cuts have been taken and deals have been done.