Dear Editor,
I am very concerned that the government propose to install a new motorway toll system which is bound to fail in exactly the same way as the present one has. It will be a further total waste of our (taxpayers’) money.
I have sent the email below to the Prime Minister and would ask all of your readers who support my view to write to him too and tell him what they think. He and his cabinet colleagues need to be made aware of the widespread objection to the whole idea of tolls and to the damage they are causing.
The address to email to is gabinete.pm@pm.gov.pt
“Exmo. Sr. Primeiro Ministro,
I have written to you twice before (in April and in July last year) on the subject of the tolls on the A22 and the damage they are doing to the economy of the Algarve, and indeed the whole country. A year later you have done nothing and the situation has become a lot worse, so I would once again ask you please to cancel the tolls forthwith. They are a financial disaster as even the Troika must acknowledge and are having seriously harmful social effects in the region.
I gather that the toll concessionaires have persuaded you to try a completely new toll system which they claim will be easier and more effective to operate. Please do not be taken in by their promises. I can tell you now that the new system will fail just as badly as the present one. The people of the Algarve cannot afford to pay tolls, so the motorway will not be used any more than it is now. You will have thrown away more taxpayers’ money for no benefit whatever – other than subsidising the directors and shareholders of the toll operating companies.
My view about this matter is widely held throughout the Algarve and if you obstinately persist with the new doomed-to-fail system and do not now cancel the tolls altogether the electorate will not forgive you.”
Norman Walker, Moncarapacho
