Urban Life in Lisbon and Surroundings: Residents' Quest for Justice and Security

Recent developments in Lisbon and its surroundings have once again brought to the fore the steps taken by the city's residents to protect their quality of life. From the huge housing project in Campolide to the speeding problem on Avenida Marginal and the wild boar population in Sintra, citizens are knocking on the doors of the authorities to assert their rights.

Legal Brake on the Project in Campolide

The real estate project, planned to be implemented on the land of the former Artillery Corps, aroused the residents of the region. The Artillery Unit Movement brought the issue to the Prosecutor's Office and the European Commission, citing the burden the project would bring to the region and its violations of the law.

In the new version of the project, it is planned to increase the number of residences to approximately 683 units. However, residents of the neighborhood argue that this concentration will negatively affect both infrastructure and environmental quality.

Main Objection Points:

Lack of Green Area: The projected weighted green area ratio remains well below the legal minimum limit determined by the municipality.

Tree Cutting: Despite receiving a negative opinion from the Environmental Directorate, approximately 70 trees are in danger of being cut down.

Old Data: Traffic analyzes were made under extraordinary conditions during the epidemic period and did not reflect today's reality.

The Lisbon Citizens Forum is also involved in the process, demanding that the municipality declare that the current construction permit has expired. Residents are not completely against urban transformation, but they want the rules and the environment to be respected.

Security Alarm on Avenida Marginal

In the Cascais and Oeiras regions, the main agenda items are speed and traffic safety. The petition initiated by the residents of the Almirante Nunes da Mata neighborhood collected more than a thousand signatures in a short time.

It is stated that the situation is out of control, especially on the EN6 highway (Avenida Marginal) connecting Lisbon to Cascais. According to official data, thousands of drivers exceeding the speed limit and illegal races in just one year make the local people uneasy.

Urgent measures to be taken include increased police enforcement, speed cameras and a reduction of the maximum speed limit to 30 kilometers at some points between Algés and Dafundo.

Residents demand that this road should no longer be seen only as a transit highway, but should be turned into a living space that pedestrians and cyclists can use safely.

Wild Boar Crisis in Sintra

In the mountains of Sintra, the issue is not so much urban construction as the imbalance between nature and urban areas. Farm owners in the region state that the excessive increase in the wild boar population has caused serious damage to their gardens and agricultural areas.

The Sintra Mountains Farm Owners Association argues that intermittent hunting does not solve the problem, and that this situation creates risks, especially in areas where houses and human mobility are dense.

The Institute of Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) also acknowledges that traditional hunting is not always possible in these regions and states that alternative control methods such as cages and trapping can be evaluated.

Park authorities, on the other hand, are monitoring the situation closely by increasing monitoring efforts with cameras and are looking for permanent solutions in cooperation with universities.

Source: PROAP, Público, Lusa