Dear Editor,
I have sent the email below to the Prime Minister:
Exmº Sr. Primeiro Ministro,
Your Government (both Coalition Parties) have voted solidly against the petition calling for suspension of the tolls on the Via do Infante. Could you please explain to me why?
The tolls are running at a loss and costing the country money. At a time of economic crisis when the Troika is calling for ever more cuts, it seems perverse nonsense – and damaging to the country, as well as to the Algarve – to continue with a scheme that is increasing public expenditure not reducing it. I am at a loss to understand your motives and consider that, as one who has lived in the Algarve and paid taxes in this country for nearly twenty years, I am entitled to know how you justify your persistence with this failed scheme which is wasting taxpayers’ (my) money. Indeed the public as a whole are entitled to know.
Please let me have an answer or get someone in your office to do so.
There is much talk in the Algarve suggesting that some high-level political figures have a financial vested interest in the continuance of the present toll arrangement and that that is why the tolls, which have proved so damaging to the economy of the Algarve, have not been scrapped. I do not know if this allegation is true, but if I do not hear from you with an alternative explanation I shall have to assume that it is.
Since the toll charges are a matter of widespread concern in the Algarve, I am going to forward this email to the English-language newspapers with a view to publication. The public are owed more transparency about how your decisions are reached.
Com melhores cumprimentos
Norman Walker,
Moncarapacho
