Monchique’s court, closed in the cost-saving purge by the often sober former Minister of Justice, Paula Teixeira da Cruz, is due to reopen in January but may be delayed as parliament still has to approve the plan to reopen this and other mothballed court facilities.
Helena Mesquita Ribeiro, the Assistant Secretary of State and Justice has been in the Algarve and commented to Sul Informação that as far as the new Minister of Justice is concerned "everything is ready for the reactivation of the Court of Monchique in early January," but there may be some slippage.
There has been significant renovation and repair work undertaken in the council-owned building, much of it necessary due to the previous Minister of Justice ordering that all the court equipment be removed.
Mayor Rui André (pictured) commented to Sul Informação that "as the Council refused to do this service (remove the equipment), because it did not agree with the closing of the Court, they sent the troops in and took everything, furniture, floor, doors, everything! Some furniture was screwed to the floor and they did not even bother to unscrew it, everything was torn away, ripping up the floor."
Monchique council has had to pay for all of these repairs, estimated at €50,000, as it wants the court to reopen as soon as possible as it was and again should become a major local employer.
This is a personal triumph for mayor Rui André whose insistence that the court remained open has paid off, even though it has cost local ratepayers €50,000 in repairs.
