Local councils want to be allowed to clear private land with less bureaucracy involved
Portuguese municipal councils are calling for quicker and less bureaucratic procedures to take temporary control of neglected private lands to clear vegetation and reduce the risk of wildfires.
“The goal is to shorten the amount of time it takes to access land and proceed with the necessary clearing,” said Luísa Salgueiro, head of the Portuguese Municipalities National Association (ANMP), speaking to the press in Matosinhos, Porto district.
Currently, municipalities face numerous bureaucratic hurdles when attempting to take administrative control of private plots of land which pose wildfire risks. Salgueiro explained that local councils must go through a complex administrative process, including obtaining a public utility declaration, before they can enter the land and perform the necessary clearing.
By the time this permission is granted, months may have passed, and the risk of fire has often already escalated. “When it’s finally possible to clean the land, it’s often too late,” Salgueiro lamented.
Essentially, the association is calling for this declaration to no longer be necessary, giving local councils the ability to act quicker and possibly prevent wildfires like those that wreaked havoc in Portugal in September.
As Salgueiro clarified, municipalities are not aiming to seize ownership of these lands, but simply to speed up the process of clearing overgrown and risky areas. Landowners will, however, be charged for the cleanup works if the proposal is approved.
“A landowner knows that the land must adequately cleared,” Salgueiro said, adding that failing to do so jeopardises their own land and their neighbours’.
If they do not have the means to do so, the ANMP boss believes landowners should consider selling their land. “They cannot have land in poor conditions which jeopardise the safety and the lives of other people, which is what has happened consecutively in Portugal,” she said.
Lastly, Salgueiro stressed the need for municipalities to have the financial resources to carry out these critical tasks effectively.
The proposal is due to be sent soon to Luís Montenegro’s government.
