Work to restore the Pego do Inferno beauty spot in the Tavira countryside at last has started with the council determined to limit public access to stop the pool and intermittent waterfall getting over over-run with people.
After five years of dithering, Tavira council finally has ordered the removal of the damaged wooden access route along the Ribeira da Asseca and plans to open a different access point in order to deter users, rather than to encourage them.
Tavira mayor, Jorge Botelho, said the beauty spot is a place with tourist potential, but that this has to be regulated.
In an interview with Sul Informação, Botelho said Pego do Inferno is in a right old mess due to previous unlimited access to visitors who leave litter and have destroyed much of the plant life in the immediate area.
Replanting will be carried out to rectify the damaged areas and Botelho then wants to "define with public entities what the future will be. We know that we have to reduce the human pressure on the area by organising visits to Pego to enjoy the natural surroundings."
The mayor’s thinking is that the beauty spot was ruined by providing good access a few years ago and that this needs correcting or the area will be ruined.
To reduce numbers, one of the council’s plans is to build a different access route, “among other options.”
According to Jorge Botelho, "Pego do Inferno must be tidier, cleaner, more looked after .... It can not be what it is now: with camping everywhere, bonfires everywhere, littering everywhere. We, go there practically every day to collect rubbish," concluded the mayor who has had five years to think this through and has come up with a project based on reducing the pool's accessibility.
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