A COUPLE whose application to drill a borehole at their home in Tavira was rejected three times by CCDR, the commission of co-ordination and regional development, (See The Resident July 6 edition), appear to have had a breakthrough.
They received a letter from the Provedoria de Justiça, a supreme justice advisory service, which asked them to state which entity informed them that boreholes could not be less than 500 metres from another, which is what the couple had been told was the reason their applications were rejected.
They told The Resident: “We have had no written confirmation from CCDR that our applications have been rejected. They have all been verbal refusals.” They added that the reason cited for the refusal is not in writing either.
At the beginning of this year, they applied for a licence to drill a borehole along with three other local residents through an agency. Theirs was the only one to be rejected. Incidentally, they were the only permanent and foreign residents out of the four who applied.
The letter also asked the couple to submit their preferred location for the borehole and that even though it could not overrule decisions, it would help to resolve the matter.
The couple, who asked not to be named, have sent the information to the entity and have included aerial images of the proposed borehole and the location of the neighbour’s borehole.
They are hopeful that the matter will be resolved soon but as the Provedoria de Justiça cannot “cancel, alter or revoke” the decisions made by a public entity, it is not certain that there will be a positive outcome.
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