José Sena Goulão / LUSA
Bruno Nunes, Chega deputy
Minister Manuel Castro Almeida went to Parliament to talk about land law – but he didn’t explain everything. Hot weather between Filipe Melo and Hugo Costa.
The Deputy Minister of Territorial Cohesion assured this Tuesday, in parliament, that it will not be possible to build “in the middle of fields or forests”, given the possibility of reclassifying rustic soils into urban ones, and that the aim is to consolidate urban areas.
“It will not be possible to build houses in the middle of fields or forests. The new law expressly requires that the consolidation and coherence of the urbanization to be developed with the existing urban area be ensured. The objective is to consolidate the urban fabric, fill urban voids or expand it in a coherent way. There can be no dispersion or ghettoization,” he said. Manuel Castro Almeida.
The government official was speaking at a hearing within the scope of the parliamentary assessment of the decree-law that amends the Legal Regime of Territorial Management Instruments (RJIGT), published on December 30, and added that, “in any case, infrastructures must exist or be guaranteed and equipment for collective use”.
“It is also required that the reclassification for urban soil is compatible with the local housing strategy”, he pointed out.
The minister refused to “build arbitrarily” and that they are “any soil that could be used to build houses”, as “soils with agricultural suitability (class A and B) cannot be used” and “soils from listed areas cannot be used either”, for example , on the Natura network.
According to Castro Almeida, also It is still not possible to build in “hazardous areas”in areas covered by special coastal programs, in areas at risk of flooding, in hydro-agricultural developments, in maritime coastal protection strips, beaches, dunes, banks of lakes, lagoons and reservoirs, areas threatened by the sea and areas threatened by flooding.”
“In all these areas, the diploma prohibits construction. Furthermore, in other areas where it is permitted, there must be a well-founded technical opinion from municipal services or another contracted entity with technical competence for this purpose”, he said.
But the minister never explained why the concept of “affordable rent” disappeared of the new diploma.
BE, PCP, Livre and PAN requested parliamentary assessment of the diploma, with a view to its revocation, but the PS has already said that it only intends to change the document.
Suspicions, discussion
At a certain point during the audition, Filipe Melo attempted to bring into debate the controversy surrounding Hernâni Dias. The Secretary of State for Local Administration and Spatial Planning is being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office due to suspicions that he received compensation to benefit a construction company when he was mayor of Bragança.
O Chega deputy explained that he took the matter to the commission because the Secretary of State in question “has a very important matter like this in his hands, and that has to do with the law of soils“. Therefore, the matter “cannot go unnoticed”.
Hugo CostaPS deputy, considered that this would not be an issue and returned suspicion of corruption in the leadership of the He arrives.
Filipe Melo didn’t like it: “Oh Mr Hugo Costa… If you want to talk about the cases of corruption in your party (PS), which are proven, we can talk. I don’t accept you speaking like that about our colleagues, without anything to prove.. The PS would be the last party to talk about this.”
At this point, the commission president was trying to silence Chega’s deputy: “Deputies: respect the presence of members of the Government”.
It is worth noting that the president of this committee was Bruno Nunes, also Chega deputy.
The hearing was suspended.
