“The Câmara de Sintra, from the very beginning, has placed great importance on serving citizens in the best possible administrative manner, striving to bypass existing bureaucracy, which is known to be cumbersome and has greatly hindered the country’s economic development,” stated Basílio Horta.
Speaking at the opening of a new citizen service center in Queluz, the mayor added that the municipality aims “for the State to reach out to the people rather than the people having to reach out to the State,” with initiatives like the citizen service centers supporting this objective.
The Sintra municipality is advancing in modernizing and bringing public services closer with the opening of the second citizen service center, now in Queluz, serving a population of over 79,000.
The new center, set on the upper floor of the Queluz Municipal Market, is meant to enhance the existing municipal service network, including a citizen service center in Agualva-Cacém and six citizen service spaces in Sintra, Pero Pinheiro, Rio de Mouro, Cacém, Massamá, and Queluz.
At the Queluz center, residents can access services from the Sintra City Hall, Municipal Water and Sanitation Services, Institute of Registries and Notaries, Social Security, and Immigration and Asylum Integration Agency, enabling economic activity licensing, water and sanitation contracts and inspections, citizen cards, passports, driving licenses, family allowance, residency permits, and family reunifications.
The idea of setting up the center in the market came about nine years ago, and Horta highlighted that despite the “negotiation with the State, always slow and sometimes complex,” they have successfully seen it through to completion.
“It is a significant investment, about 1.2 million euros, partially supported by the PRR [Recovery and Resilience Plan], and it is the second citizen service center in Sintra,” he emphasized.
Last year, the Agualva-Cacém citizen service center served “two and a half million people,” with “1,100 people attended per day,” the mayor revealed, noting that beyond administrative functions, the installation of the center will “greatly invigorate the market,” benefiting the whole parish as it is centrally located.
“Therefore, it is simultaneously good for decentralization and for the use of public space,” Basílio Horta pointed out, revealing that last year, the six citizen service spaces “attended to 1.6 million people” in Portugal’s second-largest municipality, which has “about 25%” immigrants.
According to the mayor, a third citizen service center is being planned for Algueirão-Mem Martins, in an area populated by about 66,000 inhabitants.
Besides the new center, which might be installed in Tapada das Mercês, the municipality signed an agreement with the Agency for Administrative Modernization to establish four new citizen service spaces in Algueirão-Mem Martins, Casal de Cambra, Colares, and the Union of São João das Lampas and Terrugem Parishes.
The municipality recently approved the urban requalification project for the Union of Queluz and Belas Parishes, with a total investment of 1.343 million euros, focusing on Avenida António Enes and the southern access of the Queluz railway station, intending to improve the links to the Municipal Market and the citizen service center.
The project, part of the Queluz and Belas Urban Rehabilitation Area, will initially focus on requalifying Avenida António Enes, the southern square in front of the railway station, and a section of Rua Dona Maria I, with a second phase targeting Rua Mateus Vicente de Oliveira.
The inauguration of the new Queluz citizen service center was attended by the Deputy Minister and Minister of State Reform, Gonçalo Matias.
