Coimbra City Council commits to granting land to housing cooperatives

The Coimbra City Council committed to granting land to cooperatives for housing at controlled costs, following a motion by the PS in the Municipal Assembly that required this position from the Executive to approve a sale of land.

The Municipal Assembly approved this Tuesday. by a large majority (only two abstentions), a motion from the PS that made the approval of the proposal for the sale of 10 properties (mainly plots of land), with an asset value of 2.5 million euros, dependent on the Executive’s commitment to transfer land to housing cooperatives.

The motion, presented by socialist deputy Vítor Parola, defended a commitment from the Chamber to provide, “in the short term, land for cooperatives to build at controlled prices”, as well as the guarantee of several investments that the president of the Municipality, José Manuel Silva, elected by the Juntos Somos Coimbra coalition, had said that they would be covered, with the revenue from the sale of municipal properties.

In the last Municipal Assembly of Coimbra, the sale proposal was withdrawn from the vote, after the PS expressed its intention to vote against it, with the Executive, which does not have a majority in that body, subsequently assuming the desire to dialogue with the remaining political forces.

This Tuesday, José Manuel Silva thanked the PS for the “opportunity for dialogue”, stressing that the Municipality is already working to ensure that the commitment required in the PS motion is fulfilled.

According to the mayor, a commitment to provide land has already been sent to the Mondego Housing Cooperative, “the one that spoke most directly” with the Executive and parliamentary groups, despite not only addressing that entity.

“The Municipality of Coimbra, represented by its president, signs on this date, within the legally established limits, the commitment to initiate the necessary legal procedures with a view to” the transfer of properties to “housing and construction cooperatives under surface rights regime ”, said José Manuel Silva, reading the memorandum of understanding, signed with the date of Monday.

The PS motion refers to a meeting between parliamentary groups, with the exception of the CDS-PP, on March 14, in which the importance of cooperatives for the construction of housing at controlled costs was highlighted.

The document presented by the PS only had the abstention of the two deputies from the Citizens for Coimbra (CpC) movement, not because of the principle of the text, but because of the way in which the process that resulted in the motion was designed and conducted.

Later, in the same Municipal Assembly, the proposal for the sale of municipal properties was approved, with 26 votes in favor (the various parties that make up the Juntos Somos Coimbra and the CDU coalition), 21 abstentions (PS) and two votes against (CpC) .

In the period before the agenda, a motion by Citizens for Coimbra on the Anozero biennial was also debated and voted on, which was against the transformation of the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova into a hotel.

The motion only had votes in favor from the CpC and CDU. All parties that are part of the Juntos Somos Coimbra coalition and Chega’s sole deputy voted against, while the PS abstained.