Hands Off Porto do Mós!

Last Saturday 27th August saw a very unusual demonstration on Porto do Mós beach, just outside the historic seaside town of Lagos. As one protestor put it: “People are finally waking up!

We have to change the way people do business here - or else we better start looking for another planet to live on!”

At the centre of the story is the much-loved family-run restaurant, O António, forced to close during its busiest month of the year because of a long-running legal wrangle with a development company that plans a 6-storey beachview hotel development on Porto do Mós’ hillside.

After years of owning the 11.562 square metre site, Omniasol Sociedade Empreendimentos Turísticos, SARL – connected with the nearby Cascade Development – boarded it off in the middle of August, making parking a high-season nightmare.

A representative for Cascade told «Algarve123» that the company was “well within its legal rights” to construct a fence around their site, and that as a result of winning the legal battle with O António restaurant – which had encroached on Omniasol’s land over the years – the authorities had pulled the restaurant’s licence to operate.

Thus in one fell stroke during the height of the season, beachgoers not only found parking space drastically reduced but a favourite landmark restaurant “closed until further notice”.

“It’s an absolute disgrace!” Maria Candida Leão Gomes from Lisbon told us as she signed the petition launched by residents and already massively supported on Facebook, with nearly 1.800 signatures.

“This is the worst kind of injustice! The ruination of popular tourism, in favour of the rich! Porto do Mós should be for everyone, not just rich holidaymakers!”

As youngsters from Lisbon joined the protest - with a loudspeaker hastily purchased from a nearby Chinese shop - German holidaymaker Johannes Brandl gave us his opinion.

“I have been coming here for the last three years – and I stay at Vivenda Miranda, which is also owned by the man who owns the Cascade Development: Mr Urs Wild. I have been told he is driving to Portugal from Switzerland, to arrive on Monday because of this protest, and I mean to talk to him about this – although I have no idea if he will listen to me.

“I totally support the Portuguese people here,” continued Bavarian Herr Brandl. “And I hope to tell Mr Wild what I think. You see, in the end, if there is too much development in a place, people will simply go somewhere else. There is no such thing as “unlimited growth”. If a destination changes too much – becomes too ugly, or overdeveloped - people will stop coming to it. I know I shall not be returning if they build this hotel”.

It’s exactly this line of thought that motivated young lawyer and mother-of-two Alexandra Soares, 38, into launching the protest with veteran environmental campaigner Laurinda Seabra.

“I have always been against construction on this hillside, but when I found out about this hotel, I thought: “That’s it! I have to do something now!”

“On the whole, Portuguese people are very conformist. They think ‘there is nothing we can do’ – but there is a lot we can do, if we try. Thanks to the wonderful help of Laurinda, we have managed this!”

Laurinda, a long-term resident in South Africa, a born campaigner with Portuguese roots, only recently arrived in Lagos, and has found it a town with “so much that needs fixing”!

“There seems to be no attention given to public consultation”, she explained. “We mean to work on this! We’re hoping to gather up to 5.000 signatures for this particular petition, and then we can go to the Republican Assembly, and get the issue talked about in Parliament.”

“It’s way beyond the legal issues surrounding the closure of O António’s restaurant. It’s about the future – it’s about the sustainability of a beautiful natural environment”.

It’s no secret that the cliffs on this stretch of coast are vulnerable. Retired architect Tim Tomlinson was only too keen to show us the huge ruts carved into the cliff by run-off waters from newly-built houses.

“Those houses have actually been built so near to the cliff edge that they’ll simply go within the next 100 years”, he added.

“And this is the biggest problem here – the instability of the cliffs. If you leave them alone, that’s one thing. But when you start developing along them, planting gardens and irrigating grass, that’s when things can go horribly wrong. If they demolish António’s restaurant, in my opinion, the whole cliff will become highly unstable”.

A local resident for 19 years, Mr Tomlinson has already seen a whole section of cliff give way not far from the hotel site. “It’s only a matter of time and stupidity/ greed, for it to happen again,” he added

Last Saturday’s protest began early morning, with Laurinda Seabra, Alexandra Soares and employees from O António’s restaurant gathering signatures for the petition. As the day drew on, more and more people stopped at the tables set up outside the shuttered restaurant to register their disgust.

“The whole of Portugal is being taken away”, lamented Sally Vincent, who has lived in Burgau for the last 40 years. “They’ve done tis all along the coast – destroy beautiful beaches and build monstrous hotels that remain empty for large parts of the year.

“People come to Porto do Mós especially for this beach and O António’s restaurant. Neither of them should be ruined for the sake of yet another hotel that the area doesn’t need!”

“There must be better ways of attracting tourists”, agreed 17-year-old André Carvalho, on holiday from Lisbon. “I have been coming here for 17 years. This is a beautiful place, and another hotel, right now, right here, will simply destroy everything.”

And so the complaints continued well into the afternoon. As the shoreline receded and the sun moved west, the tide of public conscience looked definitely on the turn.

For more information on the fight to save Porto do Mós and O António’s restaurant contact Laurinda Seabra on Facebook.

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Management of O Antonio Restaurant

24 October 2011

The Restaurant “O Antonio” is reopening on Wednesday the 26th October 2011.

We bring to your attention the following:

In a legal process heard by the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé, the court suspended the Lagos Municipality’s decision to close the Restaurant. And in a parallel legal process the Lagos Court of Law revoked the “A.S.A.E.” closure of the restaurant.

Furthermore, the Lagos Court of Law, decreed that the closure was illegal, and confirmed that the restaurant has all the required permits to continue its operations.

In addition, the Portuguese Attorney General is proceeding with a full criminal investigation against the local city council.

This decision is based on information disclosed by various witnesses during questioning as part of the court proceedings. The investigation will analyse all aspects relating to the closure instructions given by the local city council management.

The Honourable Judge presiding in the Lagos Court indicated in her sentence, that the decision to close the restaurant was taken by the City Council as a result of pressure applied on the Council by an interested private enterprise and for that enterprise’s sole interest and benefit.

We thank everyone for all the support and encouragement given to us during the difficult times that we experienced.