Councillors have demanded an urgent meeting to discuss the latest cuts to social services in Quarteira.
The “partial closure” of Quarteira’s social services office means that now many users have to travel miles to receive benefit and make payments.
Declaring the decision to be “a manifest blow to users and a reduction in the borough’s services”, Loulé mayor Vítor Aleixo has called for an urgent meeting with regional director of social services, Ofélia Ramos, complaining that the Câmara was not even forewarned of the closure.
Aleixo added that the decision meant that “more and more citizens are being distanced from the functions of the state” and that, once again, vital services to the region were being disrupted.
The decision to close Quarteira’s ‘tesouraria’ department of the social services comes in a week when payments desks in Vila do Bispo, Castro Marim and Messines have also been closed.
Vítor Aleixo is now pinning hopes that something can be done to find a viable solution that takes local people more into account.
