Anti-corruption campaigner Paulo Morais said that drivers using the Algarve's Via do Infante motorway are paying twice the amount than drivers in Lisbon and Oporto are paying for their motorway use.
Morais also wants the disastrous PPP agreements looked at in the clear light of day as many of them contain illegalities, with others containing secret clauses that can not be revealed even to MPs.
The User Commission of the Via do Infante (CUVI) held a working meeting in Quarteira on Wednesday and invited Paulo Morais, President of the Civic Front to comment on the Public Private Partnerships and give his views on the legality of the region's tolls.
João Vasconcelos and Michael Ferrada, leaders of CUVI, plus several leaders of Algarve Associations and businesses, attended the meeting and expressed universal disagreement with keeping the tolls on the motorway as the economic effects are negative.
Vasconcelos also is a Left Bloc member of parliament for the Algarve and expressed hope that tolls will be scrapped in the not too distant future and remains shocked at the increase in accidents in the region with 10,000 in 2016, the vast majority of these on the overcrowded EN125.
Vasconcelos pointed out that the 15% summertime toll reduction on the Via do Infante had little or no meaning when the Algarve toll rate is 30% higher than the average charged in other parts of the country.
The transport operator, Helder Ramos, complained of the "monumental" traffic jams on the EN125, especially in the summer, as well as the worsening freight costs as a direct consequence of the tolls on Via do Infante.
CUVI’s ardent campaigner, Michael Ferrada, made reference to the prime minister’s promise during his 2016 electoral campaign, namely that he would renegotiate the A22 concession contract - the PM refered to the EN125 as an "Algarvian cemetery" and said that the road was not a suitable alternative to the Via do Infante, and that the Algarve’s motorway should be exempt from tolls.
Lawyer, Ana Ferreira, a CUVI sympathiser, said the PPP contract for the A22 motorway had secret clauses even though the content should be public knowledge as it is a contract signed by the State on behalf of the population.
Paulo de Morais gade a presentation on PPP's in Portugal and called for a review of all of them as they show “clear illegalities.”
Regarding Via do Infante, Morais said that the tolls discriminate against the Algarve, with the region’s drivers paying double the amount shelled out by drivers in Lisbon and Oporto for the use of similar routes.
He argued that a study should be carried out immediately to assess the damage that the Algarve has suffered through the introduction of tolls, including the cost to the national health servic of an increase in the accident rate, balanced with the potential gains if the tolls were scrapped.
João Vasconcelos closed the debate, saying that he would continue "the fight to eliminate the unjust, arbitrary and criminal" tolls in the Algarve at a legal, grass roots and parliamentary level.
