Lagos council is holding a public meeting on "The Future of Ponta da Piedade" this Saturday, April 28th from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the Paços do Concelho XXI Century building.The seminar is open to members of the public and be moderated by the president of Lagos Municipal Assembly, Paulo Morgado and will include opinions from the bilologist Dina Salvador, the architect Hipólito Bettencourt; the archaeologist João Pedro Bernardes; council mayor Joaquina Matos; geologist Mário Cachão and the Vice President of the CCDR-Algarve, Nuno Marques.
The public meeting no doubt will focus on the partial ruination of the Ponte da Piedade area by the ‘conservation’ work already undertaken by the council in one of the region’s most emblematic beauty spots.
Dina Savador has been an outspoken critic of the council’s conservation operation that has involved laying concrete pathways across the nationally important headland at Ponte da Piedade.
The council, fuelled by European funds, laid a network of concrete and gravel pathways across this sensitive area in the hope that people would walk on them rather than across the countryside.
Environmentalists and outraged locals pointed out the damage that was being done in the name of ‘conservation’ and called for a halt to the work and that a study to be commissioned to look at the optimal method to halt the erosion, much of it caused by human feet.
Salvador sent a report with photographs to Lagos council and publicised the travesty being installed by the council.
The Algarve’s environmental agency had commissioned the work - with ‘demolition man’ Sebastião’s Teixeira heading the organisation that already has a track record of inappropriate interventions.
Dina Salvador's presentation was sent to government and accompanied by warnings from respected Portuguese scientists, with comments such as, "...the current work in progress, widening and extending the existing paths, covering them with a white geo-textile blanket, tipping a layer of gravel on top of the blanket and then adding an 8cm layer of porous concrete, not only is an eyesore but is a serious and permanent threat to natural surroundings – in particular to soil, plant and animal health.”
The council’s project was criticised by members of the public, environmental groups and political parties as well as some of Portugal’s most respected geologists, palaeontologists, botanists and geo-conservationists.
"The big obstacle facing those opposed to the Ponte de Piedade is that this project has been given community funding and once the works are finished, any future projects (to rectify the damage) in the same area will not be given funding," concluded the report
The meeting on Saturday is open to the public. Entrance is free.
