Loulé doesn’t have enough room for two proposed major developments, says the head of the local council and the regional development commission.
Supermarket giant Auchan and Scandinavian retailer IKEA both want to build large commercial centres in the Loulé council.
However, according to Correio da Manhã (CM) newspaper, Loulé Mayor Seruca Emídio says “only one of the projects” is feasible.
But he stressed that “nothing has been decided” because the projects have not been formally lodged in the Câmara.
“I am not against supermarkets because they are inevitable. However, I will not be happy with just another commercial area; I want the best one,” he said.
“There are many millions of euros involved in these projects, many interests are at stake, but those who know me know that my interest is always the council,” he added.
In the CM report, the chairman of the regional commission for coordination and development (CCDR), João Faria, also said that there isn’t enough room for both and revealed that if all existing projects for the Algarve were approved, the region would “have a commercial area 10 times larger than the national average”.
Environmental association Almargem told the Algarve Resident that it is “not in favour of (more) large commercial areas in the Algarve” especially because of what it describes as “the negative impact these will have in the smaller, traditional businesses in the region”. Paulo Silvestre
