Madeira News Blog

(6th June). ‘Cavaco Brings King Of Spain To Madeira – The president is coming to show the autonomy of the islands to Juan Carlos and Sofia, but the visit coincides with the Rally’. President of the Republic of Portugal, Cavaco Silva, is to tour the autonomous regions with his wife and the king of Spain in a three day visit that starts in the Azores at the end of July. The royal family are to visit various institutions and make contacts with the regional and local authorities, but no precise details are given on the president’s website. I am not sure what the Madeira Wine Rally has to do with it, but no doubt D. Juan will be wondering why there is tobacco advertising all over the place during his visit here, and asking our president a few awkward questions on the matter.

Main news headline of today : ‘Demolition Of Hotels Hinders Câmara – The project to knock down the Savoy and the Santa Isabel is already with the council. The complexity of the demolition, due to unknown material in the structure, forces the council to obtain appropriate reports’. Already Funchal Council have requested advice from the Regional Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, in particular they want to know, among other things, what kind of material they will find when the hotel is demolished, what materials can be recycled, and what will be the final destination of the debris and objects removed. This information is required by law when a building is destroyed, and applies to both the hotels being demolished to make way for the new Savoy project. The president of the council said he is also concerned about the impact of the demolition itself and the movement of heavy vehicles, in such a sensitive tourism area. And I rather naively thought all that had already been done. I must admit I hadn’t really considered the impact of the demolition and building the new hotel on tourism, but that must be a huge concern. Perhaps they could use it as a marketing angle called ‘Savoy demolition weekend breaks’. I think anyone else thinking of visiting Funchal on holiday, who knows about this, will be looking to reschedule or relocate to an area well away from the Savoy zone.

The front page main photo shows a road accident with police and an ambulance in attendance. ‘On The Road Inaugurated The Day Before Yesterday, Already There Is An Mess – In Pilar, the new road of alternative access to S. António, there is confusion. Less than 24 hours after the inauguration, there was a worrying accident’. It seems that the new via rápida exit in Pilar is causing some confusion (and looking at the photo I can see why). The accident resulted in a woman and child being taken to hospital. Locals say that the junction is ‘badly signed so no one understands’. Details of the accident are given, but what the Diário concludes is that the driver at fault didn’t take notice of the triangle that indicates loss of priority. The report says that the steep incline is also causing problems for cars and buses, that are having to stop and then do a hill start. The report indicates that there were complaints about the safety of the €29m project, even before the opening and inauguration on Thursday. The regional secretary responsible refused to comment about the accident or the safety concerns.

The president of Funchal Council has admitted that the attempt to introduce ‘Park & Ride’ (a car park on the edge of the city with quick easy access thereafter to the city centre by bus) was an experience, and a failure. He also said that consideration was being given to constructing a new cable car, that will follow the route of the river ‘Ribeira de São João’ to ‘Infant’ in São António.

A very thin newspaper today, and it is easy to see why. It seems that even the Diário has respected today as an official day of rest from electioneering, with not a single story on the subject. I am enjoying listening to the radio as I type this, after two weeks filled with political debates, and party propaganda broadcasts … what a relief!

(29th May). ‘Costa Cruises Increases Visits to Funchal – The Italian group pushes the crisis aside and expects to bring more passengers to Madeira’. The company says that the sector is not feeling the crisis, and that passenger numbers are expected to increase, for Portuguese travellers, up 9.1% to 6,000. Next year it is expecting another 10% increase in Portuguese passengers, even after a reduction of cruise ships visiting Lisbon (down from 37 in 2008 to 20 this year and next). Funchal will have 44 visits per year, compared to 28 last year. Overall, last year Costa carried 1.2 million passengers, which they expect to increase to 1.5 million next year.

(28th May). ‘The Dispute Advances In The Dismissals At The Savoy – Workers have already started receiving letters of dismissal from the hotel. Around 10 workers have already agreed to the termination of their contracts’. The hotel workers trade union will proceed with it’s legal challenge against the collective redundancies made by the bosses of the now closed Savoy Hotel in Funchal, which is to be demolished and rebuilt. A union spokesman said that he is convinced that "it is possible to prevent the dismissals", considering that this is an illegal process based on "unfounded reasons", and adds that workers are being pressured into submission. Whilst I doubt whether the Savoy owners relish this bad publicity, their financial resources will surely flatten the trade union, either by making all the workers offers they can’t refuse, or through manipulation of legal processes. Probably getting near the time to lay down and quit, and just hope the new Savoy Hotel gets built quickly.

The government of Madeira has decided to dish out an extra €944 thousand to help five public transport companies through the financial crisis. Two of them are from the ‘Horários’ group of Funchal, that operate the bus service in that region (€644,000 & €40,000). The additional expenditure is justified in order to help the firms to meet the needs of society in economic, social, and environmental terms. It will help to compensate for loss of revenue resulting from higher personnel costs, and other increased expenditure, that was not anticipated in the normal subsidization that these companies receive. Rodoeste, that runs the buses on the west of Madeira, will receive an extra €98,000, SAM (East) €73,000 and the bus company that serves Caniço €47,000. In total over the last 8 years, the regional government has paid out nearly €24 million to these companies for operating their services.

(27th May). A partner of Thomas cook, the travel operator, has turned to the German government for help, suffering financial problems. Arcandor AG, a 26.41% shareholder in Thomas Cook, has given an ultimatum for help with a €900 million rescue package. It needs the money by 12th June to stay in business, after failing to get financial backing from the banks, even after reducing its 86,000 workforce by 12,500. Politicians and a large competitor have criticised the ultimatum blaming Arcandor AG for management errors in retailing. The company is an important contributor to Madeira tourism.

(21st May). The government of Madeira has joined forces with the trade union representing the workers from the Savoy Hotel, that are in the process of being sacked. The hotel trade union met on Wednesday with the secretaries of the region for Human Resources and Tourism and Transport. The meeting was actually arranged to discuss the problems with the Madeira Palácio Hotel (see yesterday), but ended up switching to the more topical hotel of Madeira.

(21st May). ‘Jardim Presides Over The Commission Of Honour Of The Of The Centenary of Nacional – The chief of the regional government repeated that there are reasons not to support the building of a pavilion, nor for a prize for UEFA’. President Jardim has accepted the offer from Nacional football club to preside over the centenary celebrations. The president of the football club considered his first invitation to meet with Jardim at his official residence an honour, and a significant moment for the club, and no doubt endeared himself to his host when he said "We are in fact, the leading institution of sport on Madeira", referring to the clubs achievements in Europe, and with a fourth place finish this season almost assured. On the matter of support for a new sporting pavilion for Nacional, that decision will be postponed until the next government, which in Portuguese has a very short word ‘NÃO’!

Blimey Uncle Bertie, that must have hurt somewhat to accept the invitation for the Nacional centenary celebrity, I wonder if you had your fingers crossed in your pocket when you muttered those magic words ‘I do’. But you balanced it out nicely with the refusal of help for a new pavilion. That day will cost you a few votes from the ardent Marítimo fans for sure. No doubt Uncle Bertie had to pay the cleaners overtime to give his residence a good scrubbing afterwards.