On 19 July, the mayor of Baião, Paulo Pereira, and the president of the Loivos da Ribeira and Tresouras Parish Council, António José Fonseca, together with their executive, inaugurated the new Loivos da Ribeira River Leisure Area.
This bucolic space, on the banks of the River Teixeira, has been completely refurbished, in an intervention aimed at designing a versatile space, providing privileged contact with nature in its purest state.
The new leisure area, which was commissioned by the town council, includes access, a picnic area, a children’s playground, a fitness centre and a support building with a bar and toilets.
In addition, walls were built to stabilise the platform, existing walls were reinforced and footpaths were created, among other features.
This new facility for the parish of Loivos da Ribeira was designed to facilitate contact between children and their carers, offering a variety of activities for all ages and establishing itself as a meeting point for intergenerational socialising.
EVOLUTIONARY NATURAL ENGINEERING PROJECT
Natural engineering techniques were used, which comprise a set of low environmental impact practices that use flora, preferably indigenous, as part of the construction process, usually in conjunction with other materials such as stone, wood or straw, among others, which organically contribute to mitigating erosion, stabilising soils, slopes and riverbanks, as well as ecological restoration and landscape requalification.
ANOTHER DREAM REALISED IN LOIVOS DA RIBEIRA
The Mayor of Baião, Paulo Pereira, said that although “I’m not in the habit of doing inaugurations, there are some works that deserve it because of their symbolism. And this is one of them, which, like the access to Senhora da Lapinha or the hamlet of Aldeia, here in Loivos da Ribeira, can also be inscribed in my ‘little book of impossible works’, as I’ve heard over time.”
After thanking the members of the Loivos da Ribeira and Tresouras Executive, as well as the council employees who had a hand in this work, he congratulated the designer and the contractor and ended with a challenge to the locals:
“The hardest part has already been done, creating this Leisure Area. Now, preserve it as if it were your home, because this is yours, it belongs to all of us!”
António José Fonseca, president of the Union of Parishes of Loivos da Ribeira and Tresouras, was happy “to see yet another dream realised” and expressed his desire to have a “lively parish with a positive spirit, and for that to happen, we have to provide the conditions for people to stay here and attract visitors who leave revenue here”, even giving the example of the recently inaugurated sports centre, which has “a daily dynamic”.
The mayor ended his speech by thanking the parish council’s employees, the landowners for providing the land, the designer and Armando Pinho, the mayor’s deputy “for his constant support and accompaniment of the parish presidents”, as well as Mayor Paulo Pereira who “has helped this parish a lot since he was a councillor.”
