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The mayor of Viana do Castelo announced today the suspension of the construction of the access to the seaport until September 30 to evaluate the felling of trees in Darque with the Cabedelo neighborhood association.
“I made a commitment to the Cabedelo neighborhood association. The works are suspended until September 30. There is an agreement in principle with the association not to move the measure until there is consultation with the members of the proposals that have already been submitted to a joint analysis, ”said the socialist mayor.
José Maria Costa, who addressed journalists this afternoon, at the end of an extraordinary meeting of the council that he convened at the request of the councilors of the PSD and the CDU, to discuss the felling of trees, which today number three dozen He explained that the “commitment was assumed after a meeting, at the end of the morning, with the residents association of the town of Cabedelo.
On Monday, that association launched an extrajudicial embargo to stop the construction of an access roundabout to the seaport, in the parish of Darque, for challenging the slaughter of bananas on the artery that runs through the place.
“We will have one or two more meetings, as necessary to reach an agreement, in order to better understand some situations. Our openness is total, as always to discuss, evaluate, improve ”, he added.
He admitted that “the project cannot be changed midway,” but said that “improvements can be studied, from the environmental and landscape, road and pedestrian safety point of view.”
“This is what we were discussing together to find a balance and a form of cooperation between the parties,” he reinforced.
It is about the construction, started in February 2019, of an 8.8 km highway that will connect the commercial port with the node of Highway 28 (A28) in São Romão de Neiva, allowing the removal of heavy vehicles from the interior of urban roads.
The new accesses, claimed for more than four decades, will have two 3.5-meter wide lanes, and will involve an investment of more than nine million euros.
The president of the Cabedelo neighborhood association, Vítor Dinis, who was present at the extraordinary meeting, today expressed his satisfaction with the Chamber’s openness to dialogue.
“We are listening to each other and now we are going to evaluate, with common sense on both sides, the best balance between the economic development of the region and the environmental part,” he said.
Asked by journalists if with this understanding the extrajudicial embargo, which will have to be formalized in the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Braga (TAFB) is ineffective, he replied: “We are evaluating, if this opening occurs, this instrument will be evaluated in the next hours, days, since the space to speak is open. There is a commitment that until September 30, the executive of the city council does not proceed with the massacre. For now, we work in good faith in an open and transparent way. With this opening, we will continue this path and other instruments will be used if it does not reach a good port ”.
The councilors of PSD and CDU, who requested the extraordinary session, expressed their satisfaction with the dialogue between the municipality and the population.
“Our basic concern was to clarify all the doubts that the population has about this process. If there are people who are concerned about an issue, it is our obligation and must clarify them. I am very happy because we saw this opening by the executive ”, said Cristina Veiga.
The CDU councilor, Cláudia Marinho, stressed that the party’s intention “is not to boycott access to the seaport.”
“This is not what is asked. Alternatives are requested and that, once and for all, the suggestions that the CDU has made in the past, now and that it may propose, be taken into account, to enrich the improvements that are decided and prevent trees from forming. massacred in such great numbers ”, stressed the councilor.
During the chamber session, José Maria Costa, presented, for more than 40 minutes, the entire process that led to the start of the work, in February 2019, after “40 years of waiting”.
He noted “the approval of the instruments for managing the territory, environmental impact studies, and approvals in the chamber of the municipal assembly of all documents.”
“The Chamber has always acted with the greatest transparency in the conviction that we were carrying out a project that was consolidated not only with the political forces, the parishes, but also with the populations because it has always been so debated over the years , so illustrated, graphically, even with ‘placard’s’ installed in the parish, bulletins and even on social networks with films that I was surprised when they said they did not know, ”said the mayor who throughout the session criticized the position of the Parish Council of Darque, led by the communists and exchanged debate. more energetic with the councilwoman in the municipal executive.
José María Costa stressed that the trees to be felled, a total of 30, are bananas, “an exotic and not native species” and said that the felling will impact 50 of the 628 meters of the avenue that copies of this species run through.
“We are aware that we have always done everything in strict respect of the law, in respect of the decisions of the municipal bodies that have political legitimacy to do so, but despite that we are available to dialogue to improve or perfect some of the interventions that naturally we still have time to do it, “he concluded.
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