According to CNN Portugal, the €200 million project to build a luxury resort in Tróia for the daughter of the founder of Zara, was suspended by the judge of the Administrative and Tax Court of Beja, Ana Casa Branca.
The precautionary suspension comes in response to the measure presented by the Plataforma Dunas Livres, which brings together eight non-governmental organizations and which opposes the destruction of what they consider the last stretch of virgin coast of Portugal.
The order of Judge Ana Casa Branca orders the City Council of Grândola to temporarily suspend the continuity of the urbanization works. However, according to El País, until Tuesday afternoon, neither the municipality nor the promoter had received the notification and the works continued in Tróia, with the company guaranteeing that it would do so until it received the order from the court.
The Plataforma Dunas Livres has already made it known that it will request that the work stop permanently.
Last April, TVI said that the "Na Praia" resort was being contested by eight environmental organizations that warned that the works would destroy dunes and that they had started without a license. At the time, the company refuted all the accusations and guaranteed that it was an environmentally friendly project.
The tourist project in question involves an investment of around 200 million euros to build a 5-star hotel and three equally 5-star villages, with a total of 506 beds, something that the company stresses is less than 20 percent of the capacity permitted by the zone's urbanization plan.
The Portuguese Environment Agency approved the work despite having identified "very relevant negative impacts, of high magnitude", on "extremely high ecological values", namely on plants and dunes.
Why don't they sell off the whole country to build resorts and more and more cement touristic villages? Portugal could then change its name to Touristland or something along those lines. There seems to be no interest in any other industry which may actually bring prosperity.
By K from Other on 02 Mar 2023, 17:40
It’s an embarrassment to the country to even allow these works to begin with. The last coast we have that isn’t made for others not tourists, the last piece of sand that doesn’t seek profit and simply exists.
By Miguel Bento from Beiras on 02 Mar 2023, 19:39