Dear Editor,
As you are more than aware, Portugal is going to make the A22 a toll road. From the information I have gathered so far:
The road was built from funds from the EEC, so to add tolls is just another way of extracting more money from the public so they can spend the money yet again, inefficiently.
When the tolls come into effect, I strongly believe that many of the existing A22 users will redirect themselves back onto the EN125 … one of the most dangerous roads in Europe.
When the A22 was opened, the number of crashes on the EN125 was reduced by almost 50 per cent.
Has the Government considered the costs of the accidents that will become a regular occurrence yet again, against the A22 remaining a toll free road?
Have they considered all the stress they will add to many people travelling on the EN125?
Yet again, they will make the Algarve become more inefficient, increasing costs, which the majority of people cannot afford.
The A22 is used by a majority of holiday makers throughout the holiday season.
Now they want to put all the holiday traffic back onto the EN125… complete and utter madness.Yet again, the Government is looking no further than their noses….always short term, and not long term. They want to find a way of increasing their income, without looking at all the additional costs they will incur with all the additional accidents that will happen on this useless EN125.
Look at the money they spent on the EN125, and what have they achieved in terms of safety…I leave that for your readers to decide.
My view is that we have to get a proposal through the heads of these politicians to keep the A22 toll free, and make sure that we still have holiday makers and businesses using a safe road…the A22…for free!
PETER KEEPING, by email
Dear Editor,
Already the Algarve is suffering from a drop in British tourists.
Already there are huge numbers of British golfers going to Turkey, where the hotels do all inclusive, which is what today’s golfer wants.
Because, at the moment, it is not just the golf prices that are keeping people away but restaurant and drink costs as well.
Now you want to charge for the roads. Well, this will be one more reason for the tourist to go somewhere else.
Portugal and the Algarve have to come to terms with the financial problems that are affecting the British and the Irish people.
So No To Tolls.
ROGER KIDD, by email
Editor’s note: Dear Peter & Roger, thank you for your comments. In recent editions of the Algarve Resident, we invited readers to visit The Resident Group stand at BLiP (see pages 28 to 30) if they wished to sign the online petition to oppose the implementation of tolls on the A22. Sadly, and despite the hundreds of people who visited our stand (thank you all), only a small number of people signed the petition. Regrettably we had a technical hiccup on Saturday morning and were unable to register people, however the remainder of the weekend didn’t see the numbers of people wanting to express their discontent at the move as we expected. If you couldn’t make it to BLiP but would still like to sign the online petition and need help due to lack of command of the Portuguese language, please visit our offices in Lagoa and we will help you register. More Letters from readers opposing the tolls can be viewed on our website by clicking ‘say no to tolls’.
