In a hard-hitting statement released today (July 6), Algarve MP Cristóvão Norte has accused the Socialist government of “failing the region”.
His criticism revolves around how the state failed to complete the EN125 roadworks (click here) and implement a new “university hospital management system” (click here) before June 30.
As the PSD MP explains, “the EN125 renovations have left citizens living in torment.”
He says the works were “badly planned,” are “poorly signalled” and are ongoing in some areas despite the guarantee that they would be suspended at the end of last month.
Though he admits that roadworks “always cause constraints”, Norte says “nothing was done to minimise them”.
The MP recalls that he made two proposals to suspend the A22 motorway tolls in areas affected by the EN125 roadworks, but both were rejected in Parliament by political parties who “say they are in favour of abolishing them”.
Norte also says that the roadworks could already have been completed had they not been stopped for seven months between June 2016 and January 2017 – which the state justified by saying it was renegotiating a contract with the concession company in charge of the renovations.
Norte is also frustrated to see that the new “university hospital management system” which promised to solve many of the regions recurring issues is stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
He says that the new model is essential to avoid the “degradation of the São Brás physiotherapy centre” – which functions way below its potential due to limited resources – as well as the region’s public hospitals.
“Words aren’t enough,” he alluded to the government’s broken promises. “We need action” – and that is what the MP affirms he will “continue to demand”.
