Maybe do something for the locals first, lowering taxes, sorting out the mobility allowance which is a total farce, more affordable housing and rentals, and so on…
The Faial Golf Course will extend over an area of 700,000 m2, or 70 hectares, which in a straight line will extend approximately two kilometers into the river, transforming the landscape and boosting the local and regional economy. The Government expects to begin negotiations by the end of the year for the more than 850 plots of land that make up the area to be covered, and expropriation is not ruled out to maintain the project. The construction and operation of the course will be private and, like Ponta do Pargo, will include a real estate component.
The fourth golf course on the island of Madeira, the fifth in the Region, will extend from the Faial bridge upwards, towards the mountains, and will occupy the entire Ribeira valley, essentially a green and agricultural area.
The Regional Secretary for Equipment and Infrastructure already has the land parcel plan; the next step is to identify the owners and conduct an appraisal for the acquisition of the properties. Pedro Rodrigues assures that the appraisal will be carried out “by an independent expert authorized by the court,” and he expects to send letters to the owners this year to begin the negotiation process. The Secretary estimates that the purchase of the land will cost the public coffers at least 25 million euros.
The task ahead is laborious, given the number of plots and the need to reach the owners. “Our land division is so complex and so tangled,” he lamented. “We are still paying for land in Ponta do Pargo,” the official mentioned, as an example of the difficulty underlying the process.
People sometimes don’t even have property deeds, and in many cases the heirs reside outside the region and the country. “No individual, through their own means of acquiring land, could get there,” the secretary assures, thus responding to those who criticize the Regional Government’s initiative.