A22, It's Official

The long awaited decision and the saga of the A22 toll road is finally over, well according to one local news source anyway.

Over the past 12 months, neither government party it seemed dared to make a decision for fear of losing votes on whether the A22 motorway, which was built with money from the EU, should-or-shouldn't become a toll road.

The previous government opted out of making a decision, stating that it wouldn’t be right having already called a general election and deferred the decision until after the election. The new coalition parties also bottled it and passed the final say to the President of Portugal, who by Portuguese law had around 30 or 40 days to make a decision, one way or the other.

Not needing the full amount of time available, he has decreed that as from December 8^th 2011, motorists must start to pay to use the motorway, or use the notorious EN125, which has the unenviable statistic of the having the highest traffic accident and death rate on a stretch of road of this size in the whole of Europe.

Being unable to make one decision, the Portuguese parliament now has another hot potato to juggle, should they agree on the proposed increase in VAT from the current rate of 6% to 23%, which is the standard rate in Portugal (and you UK residents thought that 20% VAT was bad enough) on items like golf fees and other sporting events, which currently enjoys the lower rate. Some organisations have seen this as an opportunity to make a few extra Euros and have already started charging the new rate when it will not becoame law until January 1st at the earliest, once and IF parliament ratifies the decision, how dispicable some greedy gits are.

Let us not forget that golf was one of the reasons for people originally coming to the Algarve, when Sir Henry Cotton built the first golf course at Penina nearly half a century ago.
Now there are around 35 golf courses along the Algarve which brings in 1000's upon 1000's of golfers and tourists each year. Now they will have to pay to use a toll road to get to each golf course and then possibly pay more money to play golf, or use death highway, leaving an extra hour to get to their desination and then risk getting there in one piece.

Not finishing there, should they wish to dine out, they will then have to pay the new rate of vat on their meals, which has recently increased, from 13% to 23%.

All at a time when everyone's pocket is being squeezed and perhaps a great number of people might just end up going to Spain to play golf or maybe elsewhere, nice one Portugal, another great way to build the tourist industry.