Ponte de Lima Court needs “urgent” intervention

The Palace of Justice of Ponte de Lima continues to present numerous pathologies requiring “urgent” intervention, namely in terms of cleaning and repairing the building’s roof.

The annual report of the District of Viana do Castelo, to which O MINHO had access, highlights that, with regard to the roof, “it is necessary to eliminate the difference in level existing in a certain area, where there was a drop in the roof, a fact that could lead to new infiltrations, in addition to those already observed in one of the offices assigned to the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.

The document also lists the need to clean and repair existing cracks in the exterior walls and subsequently paint them; cleaning and repairing existing cracks in interior walls and subsequent general painting; to the repair of wooden floors in the rooms of the Bar Association and section of the DIAP (Department of Investigation and Criminal Action).

It also demands “the appropriate treatment of interior wooden doors and other wood existing inside the building, the replacement of existing aluminum windows, which do not provide minimally acceptable thermal and sound insulation, the replacement of existing blinds and the installation of external shutters on facades most exposed to the sun and the replacement of external doors with more robust ones with better locks, to increase the necessary security of the installations”.

Abuses in the parking lot

The needs also include an increase in the number of lighting sensors, especially in the archive, in corridors, stairwells and bathrooms. The area intended for hearing witnesses in courtrooms no. 1 and 2 also does not allow accessibility for people with reduced mobility.

There is a need to place barriers for controlled entry and exit from the car park located behind the Palace of Justice (and intended for the exclusive use of magistrates, conservators and employees), in order to eliminate its abusive use by people foreign to the services.

The Report also says, in conclusion, that the installation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office has already been completed on the ground floor of the building (in a space that was left vacant as a result of the merger of the Registries (now IRN) and which was handed over to the Court ) freeing up space on the first floor that can be reused for installing offices (and possibly even a small room for carrying out procedures), albeit temporarily.

This would work – he points out – “until the eventual implementation, by the IGFEJ – Institute of Financial Management and Justice Equipment, of the project already outlined by the DGAJ (General Directorate of Justice Administration), with a view to creating a new courtroom, new space for videoconferences, new decent witness room, and new offices for magistrates and judicial secretary. There is also an urgent need to allocate a security element in the building and the need to install a metal detector”.