Évora: Independent movement seeks to review urban planning

The head of the list for the independent movement MCE for the Évora City Council lamented this Friday the loss of the municipality's "pioneering role" in the Municipal Master Plan in Portugal, which should have already been revised, as well as the Urbanization Plan.

“We have already lost our pioneering role and we have lost the rules that every 10 years [it is necessary] to review the Municipal Master Plan [PDM] and the Urbanization Plan,” Florbela Fernandes, candidate for mayor of the Movimento Cuidar de Évora (MCE), told Lusa news agency.

On the sidelines of a campaign event that began early, shortly after 7:30 a.m., at the city council's urban planning department, and which included contact with water and sanitation workers, the candidate emphasized that, if elected in the municipal elections on the 12th, she will dedicate her attention to these two land use planning instruments. " They're from 2013, and we're already in 2025. However, I think [the next] term is a very important one, because we'll be able to complete this review of both documents," she emphasized. The Évora City Council was the first in the country to create a Master Plan (PDM), in 1985.

Florbela Fernandes, a MCE councilor in this council term, recalled that in June of this year the executive approved, with votes in favor of the CDU (PCP/PEV) administration and also hers, an amendment to the PDM, "by force of the Land Law, to reduce urban perimeters."

"I agree with the reduction of urban perimeters as long as there is building capacity within the urban grid," she reinforced, noting that the change reduced the urban perimeter by 14 square kilometers. However, at the same time, it guaranteed "an increase in construction," as well as making it possible to "build taller," allowing a contractor, "on the same lot, to build more," the independent emphasized.

Housing and sanitation issues have been a constant presence in her daily campaign. The candidate reported hearing "complaints closely related to garbage and the city's cleanliness" and told Lusa that she was concerned about the loss of young people. "Young people are all leaving for the villages. It's one thing to go by choice; we have more leisure in the Alentejo; it's another to go because we don't have a solution in Évora and the city needs to be rejuvenated," she argued.

The approximately 20 city council employees who received the candidate and the rest of the MCE delegation this Friday had many complaints about their working conditions, from the lack of materials and uniforms to reduced salaries and the lack of a space where, at the end of the day, they could at least take a shower.

"I come home all dirty, and my pay isn't even enough to wash my clothes," said one worker, who also left a message for all politicians for appearing "at this time" and then disappearing. In response, Florbela Fernandes told him she'd visited the space as a councilwoman and promised to return as president.

Also running for the Évora City Council are João Oliveira (CDU – PCP/PEV), Carlos Zorrinho (PS), Henrique Sim-Sim (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM), Ruben Miguéis (Chega), Pedro Ferreira (BE) and Fábio Cabaço (IL).

The current municipal executive, led by Carlos Pinto de Sá (CDU), serving his third and final term, is made up of two elected members from the CDU, two from the PS, two from the PSD and one from the MCE, but the municipal assembly board is in the 'hands' of the socialists.

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