Among the subjects of the Chamber Meeting, on March 26th, the Executive revealed the approval of the protocol with the Regional Directorate of Culture that will allow the municipality to undertake an urgent conservation intervention in the Romanesque Church of S. Pedro de Rates, a national monument, which is in an advanced state of degradation.
The first intervention will be carried out on the roof and replacing the broken stained glass windows. The second phase of works will take place inside the church and in the churchyard. The rehabilitation will be the responsibility of the City Council.
For the Vice-President and Councilor for Culture, Luís Diamantino, the Chamber’s insistence bore fruit and “we will start as soon as possible with Estamo, a public company that is now responsible for the maintenance of national monuments”.
This first phase will involve an investment of between 50 and 100 thousand euros, which will result from “an application that we will have to make to the Cultural Heritage emergency fund. It rains inside the church”, recalled the mayor.
In the second phase, “we will have to see if the humidity that exists is rising or falling. The director of Estamo and the director of Cultural Heritage have already carried out a work like this in another space, and understand that it must be rising humidity. But, we will have to work in this direction, check, and then do it. The projects, the specifications, will be drawn up by the City Council, but with the technical monitoring of the Regional Directorate of Culture, which will monitor these works”, he announced.
The celebration of the protocol for the conservation works of the Church of Rates was also applauded by the Socialist Councilor, João Trocado: “We hope that, as the ball is in the municipality’s court, this candidacy can be developed more quickly and the competition carried out, the type of adjudication that is necessary to be able to resolve a situation that is urgent and that has been hanging around here for a long time”.
The Church of Rates is the only example of Cluniac construction that exists in the country, and is part of a candidacy in the Cluniacense network, as a World Heritage Site.
The award for the creation of a daycare center and an occupational center for the elderly, at Escola de Barros in Estela, was ratified by the Executive. The investment exceeds 1.5 million euros, and the execution and requalification period of the building should not exceed 14 months.
The work was awarded to Construções FM Magalhães, the only competitor, because according to João Trocado, “all others who were invited to participate in the public tender said they were not interested in the base value that had been defined. The interpretation we make is that at this moment, with so many work fronts across the country and the region, which have advanced with community and PRR funds, it is increasingly difficult to move forward with public works, due to the lack of labor. and the lack of structure capable of coordinating all the specialties of these works, which are not easy. But, fortunately, a competitor still appeared who submitted a proposal within the limit price and, therefore, it was possible to move forward with this award.”
The Executive Meeting also served to approve an amendment to the Local Housing Strategy, which will allow an increase on Rua Alberto Oliveira in Barreiros, from 46 to 48 housing units, as well as the construction of 32 new dwellings in Mariadeira, on land that the municipality acquired from Beneficente.
According to Luís Diamantino’s calculations, “we are going to go from 12 million to 14 million in this Local Housing Strategy process”.
Urbanistic Simplex and Three Million Loan
The Executive determined the delimitation of the Consolidated Urban Zone of the Municipality. There will always be a standard of municipal regulations to be respected, but this will allow the recognition of this area as predominantly built and infrastructured. Once the project is submitted to the local authority’s technicians, construction will be able to move forward without needing to wait for licensing.
Note: News developed in the paper edition of April 4, 2024
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