Quercus today defended a “firm stance” by the Government and the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) in the face of the challenge from the tourist promoter Coporgest to the revision of access to two beaches in the municipality of Grândola.
In a statement released today, the environmental association condemned “the intimidation strategies” of the tourist promoter Coporgest toward the APA regarding the Camarinhas and Duna Cinzenta beaches, in the municipality of Grândola, Setúbal district.
According to Quercus, the real estate group behind the Comporta Beach & Golf Resort project “publicly threatened to file a provisional injunction against the APA”.
This, he continued, “to try to block the revision of the Espichel-Odeceixe Coastal Zone Program (POC) and the construction of 250 new parking spaces beside the sole public entrance that allows access to the Camarinhas and Duna Cinzenta beaches, one of the measures announced by the Minister of the Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho.”
The real estate promoter, according to Quercus, intends to “condition the legitimate action” of the APA as the “entity responsible for supervising and guaranteeing public access to all national beaches, enshrined in law”.
In the association’s view, the construction of the parking lot “is essential to enable true public access” to the Camarinha and Duna Cinzenta beaches.
“Currently, there is only a single route available along the National Road 253, signposted” for emergency vehicles or pedestrian access, with no “parking available for those not staying” at the tourist developments there, she noted.
In the same note, Quercus described this as “yet another lamentable chapter in this attempt to appropriate a public asset—the Portuguese beaches”.
And it argues that “the Portuguese coastline is under a genuine attack by private interests in luxury real estate,” she argued.
Quercus also recalled that “about a year ago, the APA had already notified Coporgest to remove from its English-language site a reference to a ‘pristine private beach’ next to the development, which was justified as a ‘translation error’.”
Quoted in the statement, Quercus’s national president, Alexandra Azevedo, welcomed the government’s position on beach access, but urged the adoption of concrete measures.
“It is to be welcomed the firmness of the Government on these issues, seeking to investigate and regulate the situation of the Grândola coast,” the official said, still demanding “more concrete measures and effectively holding and sanctioning the developments that insist on placing obstacles to the process.”
Besides urging the Government and the APA to “maintain a firm posture in the face of these threats of litigation by private promoters,” Quercus called for progress, “without concessions,” of the Espichel-Odeceixe POC revision.
It also advocated the “imposition of penalties on anyone who, through physical barriers or misleading communication, continues to hinder or distort public access to any national beach.”
In a statement sent to the Lusa agency on Friday, Coporgest asserted that the parking planned for that area will steer visitors toward the Duna Cinzenta beach, whose capacity could be exhausted due to the proximity of the future tourist development.
The promoter argued that the parking allocated to the Camarinhas beach must ensure effective access to that beach and accused the Pestana Group of seeking to keep the respective public access conditioned.
