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The councilors of PSD and CDU in the Chamber of Viana do Castelo today requested an extraordinary meeting of the executive to discuss the felling of 20 trees foreseen in the access contract to the seaport.
This is the construction of a roundabout to access the city’s maritime port, on Avenida do Cabedelo, in the parish of Darque, which should have started on Monday and was seized by residents who are challenging the massacre of some two dozen the 170 trees (bananas) on that artery.
Contacted today by the Lusa agency, the Social Democratic councilor Cristina Veiga explained that today the “joint” request to “guarantee the quorum of a third of the elements that make up the municipal executive” with a socialist majority was presented to the autarky.
The objective of that session, he said, is to allow “clarification of aspects of the project that are not clear.”
“The president has already said that everything was transparent, approved in a meeting of the chamber and municipal assembly, but there are aspects that have not been clarified. Our perspective has always been to approve a work that is fundamental, in the future, for the local economy. What was never very clear, in our opinion, and was a great surprise, is this massacre that is not mentioned in any document ”, explained the councilor who shares the bench of the Hermenegildo Costa City Council with PSD.
Lusa tried a reaction from the Chamber of Viana do Castelo, but so far without success.
At stake is the construction, started in February 2019, of an 8.8-kilometer highway that will connect the commercial port with the node of highway 28 (A28) in São Romão de Neiva, which will allow the removal of heavy vehicles Inside urban roads.
The new entrances, claimed for more than four decades, will have two 3.5-meter wide lanes.
According to Cristina Veiga, the PSD “never had access to any environmental impact study”, despite admitting that “the issue of the massacre of bananas was implicit, but should have been assessed.”
“How the process was carried out was unclear. The steps continued, but there were failures and there were so many that now culminates in this situation that the population opposes the killing of the 20 bananas. We will not cut down old trees. They have their importance as an environmental heritage. There are factors that must be taken into account and that must not be taken into account ”, he reinforced, adding that“ the law gives the mayor eight days, after receiving the request, to schedule the extraordinary meeting ”.
“The law is clear. Let’s wait, ”he said.
For Lusa, the only councilor of the CDU, Cláudia Marinho, stressed that the party “is not against the construction of access to the seaport”, being “one of the objectives of its activity plan”, but assured that “from at the beginning of the project, the party has indicated alternatives that were never taken into account by the socialist majority in the executive ”.
Cláudia Marinho added that, “in 2008, at the beginning of the project, the CDU presented solutions, not only related to this situation, and that were not taken into account.”
“In the second review of the project, which was in public discussion for more than two years, this massacre was not specifically mentioned. I am not saying that this situation was not foreseen in the project, but it was not clear, nor was it ever mentioned. We believe that the best thing is that this has been said and not hidden ”, he stressed.
For the communist councilor, there is still time to “circumvent” the route disputed by the population.
“I just want to, just listening to everyone involved. As far as I know, the Cabedelo neighborhood association was not heard. The Darque Parish Council gave suggestions when they were due, but they were never accepted. It is a recurring fact because the executive has a majority and many times does not accept the alternatives and suggestions, ”he reinforced.
The work is financed by the City Council of Viana do Castelo and the Administration of the Ports of Duero, Leixões and Viana do Castelo (APDL).
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