In the scope of the proposed disaggregation of parishes, the Matosinhos and Leça da Palmeira Parish Council promoted, last week, two clarification sessions in both territories.
The sessions were led by Manuel Tavares, President of the Parish Assembly and included the participation of Rio Fernandes, geographer and Joel Cleto, historian.
Along with a presentation of a more technical nature about the Law 39/2021, which defines the legal regime for the creation, modification and extinction of parishes and revokes the Law No. 11-A/2013 of January 28, which proceeds with the administrative reorganization of the territory of the parishes, held by the President of the Parish Assembly, Joel Cleto and Rio Fernandes focused on the history and territorial and human geography of each parish, making it clear that each one of these fits the requirements set out in that legal diploma.
Paulo Carvalho, President of the Council, also participated in these sessions. In the words of the mayor, "it is essential to work for the recovery of the old parishes, however, this process should be a good opportunity to start a real reform at the level of attributions and powers. According to the mayor, "the parishes must project themselves into the future, seeking to gain even more capacity to bring local government closer to its citizens. For this, it is vital that they gain more responsibilities, autonomy and of course, greater financial capacity to provide, with quality, their service.
The clarification sessions also included interventions from the different political benches, as well as a period open to interventions from the audience.
In summary, there was a broad consensus in favor of the disaggregation of the Union of Parishes of Matosinhos-Leça da Palmeira among all the participants, including the elected members of the
Assembly of the Parish.
With these sessions Matosinhos and Leça da Palmeira kick-started this matter, hoping that soon it will be possible to take to the parliament the formal proposal for the disaggregation of this Union of Parishes.