Lisbon City Council councilors debated and voted, this Wednesday, on two proposals for the immediate suspension of new local accommodation licenses. A first, from the PS, presented at the beginning of this week, which provided, in addition to the immediate suspension, to be applied in parishes where there is a rate “equal to or greater than 2.5%” or in the municipality, as a whole, if it presents a index “equal to or greater than 5%”, thus creating a single absolute containment zone if the index is equal to or greater than 5%; and a second, from the Executive of Carlos Moedas, which was filed today and which simply provided for “the suspension of the authorization of new registrations of local accommodation establishments throughout the municipality of Lisbon until the entry into force of the amendment to the Municipal Regulation of Local Accommodation”.
The PS proposal received favorable votes from the socialists themselves, Livre, PCP, Bloco de Esquerda and Cidadãos por Lisboa and, in the second round of voting, it would end up being made viable unanimously.
In one case, as in the other, the idea is that the suspension begins on November 1st and continues until a new regulation for local accommodation in the city is approved. The objective is to respond to the new Local Accommodation law, which comes into force this Friday and which, in the case of Lisbon, has the effect of lifting the current suspension of new licenses in 20 of the city’s 24 parishes.
At the chamber meeting, which took place this Wednesday, the president of the municipality argued that a simple suspension would be “the simplest”. “To make it clear to Lisbon residents, we will suspend all records at this time and then we will bring here a proposal with a new regulation, in which we can discuss the records”, he defended, highlighting that his is “an engineer’s proposal”.
Moedas suggested that everything be agreed upon in a single proposal, but the socialist councilors refused, claiming that it was necessary to ensure “the principle of proportionality” – as mentioned in an opinion requested from the municipality’s services as part of the drafting of the regulation – and also to safeguard orders that are pending.
Joana Almeida, councilor responsible for Urbanism, argued that with the PS proposal “the door is opened to a hunt for licenses” and “so-called ghost licenses”, of which there are now, in the city, “more than seven thousand”.
Considering that this rate is currently 7.5%, with this proposal, “it is impossible for there to be new licenses in the current state”, said PS councilor Inês Drummond.
“The focus is to quickly bring a consensual proposed regulation to the chamber meeting”, insisted Joana Almeida, defending “this immediate suspension at zero”.
The opposition, however, did not agree and, without consensus, the two proposals ended up being voted on, becoming PT’s.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
