The mayor reveals that, for example, a commitment to transfer land to the Mondego housing cooperative has already been sent.
Coimbra City Council has pledged to give land to cooperatives for affordable housing, following a motion by the PS in the Municipal Assembly demanding this position from the executive in order to approve a land sale.
The Municipal Assembly approved by a large majority (only two abstentions) a PS motion that made the approval of the proposal to sell ten properties (mainly plots of land), with an asset value of 2.5 million euros, conditional on the executive’s commitment to hand over land to housing cooperatives.
The motion, tabled by Socialist MP Vítor Parola, called for a commitment from the city council to provide land “in the short term so that cooperatives can build at controlled prices”, as well as the guarantee of various investments that the mayor, José Manuel Silva, elected by the Juntos Somos Coimbra coalition, had said would be secured with the proceeds from the sale of municipal properties.
At the last Coimbra Municipal Assembly, the proposed sale was withdrawn from the vote, after the PS expressed its intention to vote against it, and the executive, which does not have a majority in that body, subsequently stated its willingness to enter into dialogue with the other political forces.
José Manuel Silva thanked the PS for the “opportunity for dialogue”, stressing that the municipality is already working to ensure that the commitment demanded in the PS motion is fulfilled.
According to the mayor, a commitment to transfer land has already been sent to the Mondego housing cooperative, “the one that has spoken most directly” with the executive and parliamentary groups, although he is not only addressing that entity.
“The municipality of Coimbra, represented by its mayor, hereby undertakes, within the legally established limits, to initiate the necessary legal procedures with a view to” the transfer of properties to “housing and construction cooperatives under a surface right regime”, said José Manuel Silva, reading out the memorandum of understanding, signed on Monday (April 22, 2024).
