The Left Bloc Parliamentary Group delivered a Bill to the Assembly of the Republic for the immediate abolition of toll charges on the former “roads at no cost to the user” (SCUT) along the entire length of the A28.
In the document, the Bloco de Esquerda recalls that the former SCUT functioned as an instrument of solidarity and sustainable development in which the State assumed investment in accessibility in deprived and low-density areas, through exemption from paying tolls, justified by its social, economic and territorial impacts, particularly in regions where there is no, or very scarce, collective and individual public transport”.
For the Left Bloc, “the application of the user-pays principle in almost the entire country was done blindly, based on economic criteria, and in the case of the A28, the North Litoral motorway, as in all other cases, it was This is a wrong and very unfair measure that has only harmed the North region, especially affecting the Districts of Porto, Braga and Viana do Castelo”.
“We are facing a situation of concrete injustice for Alto Minho, severely penalized with the introduction of tolls, with a significant impact on economic, commercial and tourist relations between Alto Minho and Galicia, since 51% of the goods transported to Spain they enter through Galicia and 65% of goods transported by road in the north of Portugal come from Galicia”, he adds.
The Left Bloc emphasizes that it has always opposed “the application of the user-pays principle on motorways, whenever there is harm to the mobility of populations, as is the case with the A28”, since “roads constitute a collective public good , not susceptible to being privatized, which, as instruments of an accessibility policy, ensure the free movement of people and goods”.
“The alternative defended by the Left Bloc is based on the principles of solidarity and the defense of social cohesion, the promotion of improved territorial accessibility, as an essential instrument of a sustainable development strategy and the consecration of the right to mobility as a structuring element of a modern democracy ”, I concluded.
It should be remembered that the Left Bloc has already presented several proposals against tolls in the Assembly of the Republic, during the PSD/CDS and PS governments, which were rejected by a negative majority of deputies from these three political forces.
