Assembly of Figueira da Foz approves amendment to the Municipal Master Plan

A Figueira da Foz Municipal Assembly today approved an amendment to the Municipal Master Plan (PDM) that will allow analyzing a French investment of EUR 800 million (ME) to produce green fuel for aviation.

The executive's proposal led by Pedro Santana Lopes was approved this afternoon by a majority (PSD/CDS-PP coalition), in extraordinary meeting, with 26 votes in favour and 16 against.

The French company Elyse Energy filed a request for prior information at the Chamber of Figueira da Foz to build a green fuel production unit for aviation, from hydrogen, in an area of about 30 hectares, in the parish of Marinha das Ondas, south of that coastal county of Coimbra district.

“What is at stake today is only an amendment to the MDG, which will allow such proposals to be submitted, which would otherwise be rejected at the outset and would not be evaluated,” the mayor argued, ensuring that if the company is considered to be polluting it is not authorised.

Alderman João Martins, who has been following the process, pointed out that the change in the PDM “does not license anything, nor gives guarantees of licensing, only creates conditions to evaluate the installation of that industrial unit”.

“ This amendment will allow all studies to be carried out to demonstrate whether the installation is compatible. If there are no environmental or public health issues it is an investment that the municipality wants to receive”, said the mayor, who assists the mayor in matters related to economic development.

João Martins pointed out at the meeting that, in the context of the public consultation on land reclassification, the municipality adjusted the possible area of installation to 24 hectares, so as to leave a distance from the existing housing in the area.

The majority councilor PSD/CDS-PP also said that if the Environmental Impact Study is favorable to the implementation of the industrial unit, “the result will have to demonstrate that there are no environmental or public health issues of any kind”.

According to him, the promoter has already established promising contracts for the purchase and sale of land of about 30 hectares in the parish of Marinha das Ondas without support of the municipality.

“What we want is to create an opportunity to study all issues to assess risks,” he stressed.

The president of the Junta de Freguesia da Marinha das Ondas voted against the proposal to amend the PDM, claiming that the parish already has “its dose” of heavy industrial units and that the location is “on top of housing and people”.

“ My opposition relates exclusively to the location chosen for implementation, because I believe that spatial planning should prioritize the protection of populations and the preservation of their well-being”.

The PS based its vote against the lack of definition of the type of industrial fabric that the municipality wants for the coming decades and with the fact that the southern part of the municipality “already receives a strong and consolidated business and industrial component, associated with a remarkable environmental impact”.

The CDU, the Evolving Figueira coalition (BE/Free/PAN) and the Aquida voted against the proposal to amend the MDG.

The investment proposed by the French company, which has not yet submitted a project, aims to obtain the status of Project of National Interest (PIN) and was applied to the European Innovation Fund, according to the Figueirense municipality.

In the construction phase, the company plans to involve 600 workers and then, in the process of operating the industry itself, create a hundred direct jobs.