Exasperated residents living outside Portimão, in the parish of Mexilhoeira Grande, have taken to print in the hope that long-standing grievances are addressed before municipal elections in just a few weeks time.
The residents of Serra e Mar have written to Portimão mayor Álvaro Bila and the president of Mexilhoeira Grande, José Vitorino da Silva Nunes, to ask why, in spite of so many attempts to effect improvements to their lives, they remain ‘ignored’.
Complaints do not just centre on roads in the area (which includes Monte Judeu and Monte Canelas) in poor condition, and lacklustre attention to refuse collection, they also focus on serious hazards, like the ‘blind’ passage under a railway line where a signpost giving priority to vehicles coming from the north is obscured by tree branches. Only one vehicle at a time is able to pass under this viaduct, so there frequently ends up being a form of frightening free-for-all in which many vehicles have come off the worse.
Then there is the question of what would happen in a fire coming from Monchique: if residents wanted to ‘escape’, their only way out is the only road that would be used by firefighters to gain access… how would the ‘one way’ passage work then?
None of these issues are ‘new’, but council elections are exactly the occasions for issues like this to be addressed, and many foreign residents have the power to vote in them.
Thus the letter is “a serious plea” to be heard; an invitation to the mayor and Mexilhoeira’s parish council president to come to the area and see the problems for themselves.
The roads ‘in poor condition’ are also flanked by dry foliage and overgrown bushes – all horribly combustible material, getting drier and more of a fire risk by the day.
The letter refers to the times that residents have suggested CCTV cameras – to dissuade fly-tippers and construction companies from using ‘domestic bins’ to drop builders’ rubbish – and the explanations that these would be ‘illegal’. There was then the suggestion of ‘signs’ in various languages (Portuguese, English, German), to dissuade people from leaving unsightly rubbish beside bins, not in them, but the authorities’ answer to that was that it would be ‘too expensive’ as then they would have to do signs for other areas as well…
The letter actually refers to one incident where a construction company fly-tipping builders’ waste was caught on camera, with the matriculation plate perfectly captured. The evidence was delivered to EMARP (the municipal company responsible for refuse collections)… and the response was “could the resident please take out a private prosecution” to save EMARP becoming involved.
“EMARP and its subcontractors have years of experience in our area, yet nothing has been done to improve the collection of green waste from homes, nor the cleaning of the roadsides littered with plastic and bottles that we drive past almost daily without any relief”, the letter concludes.
“We eagerly await a visit from the Mayor or his representatives, as well as the President of the Mexilhoeira Grande Parish Council, to travel along the M532 in both directions to the Penina Roundabout and see the situation for themselves.
“The privilege of a clean neighbourhood seems to be reserved by EMARP/ the Municipality only for areas considered to be popular with tourists. Ours, despite also receiving tourists, is neglected”.
