Left Bloc MP joins fight against Portimão three hotel project

Left Bloc MP and campaigner, João Vasconcelos, has requested an urgent hearing with the Secretary of State for Spatial Planning and Conservation of Nature, to clarify the planning proposal in Portimão at the clifftop site, João de Arens.

This hearing follows the contested construction of an 822 bed, three hotel real estate project in countryside between the beaches of Vau and Prainha.

The project had a public consultation that ended on March 15th with the Council slammed for not allowing public access to the documentation.

Locals and the environmental lobby, including Almargem, say the project will destroy, “the last green window to the sea of ??the city of Portimão,” and Vasconcelos agrees.

“The area of ??João de Arens can be considered the last natural stronghold of the coast of Portimão, where there are many indigenous rare and exotic plants as well as many species of birds. It’s very close to the Ria de Alvo and is located in a Natura 2000 area,” according to the local MP.

Vasconcelos says “it’s urgent to preserve our environmental heritage and landscape, so that the citizens and the generations to come can enjoy it, for a better quality of life,” emphasising that the public is fed up with more speculation and concrete along the Portimão coastline.

The MP says it’s essential that the real estate project and its impacts are discussed with the government’s environment department.

“In addition, the project in question collides with the Regional Plan for Spatial Planning in the Algarve (PROTAL),” says Vasconcelos.