A group of property owners from Ericeira – north of Lisbon – is contesting an ancient law which concerns waterfront properties being transferred to the Portuguese State unless one can prove in court that the land has been in private hands for at least 150 years.

Now if you think a little back, we talked about a controversial ruling which obliges owners of property in waterfront locations – such as those along the entire Algarve coastline – considered by the State as ‘hydric land’ in the public domain, to prove the public ownership of said land for at least a century-and-a-half in court before January 1, 2014, or it would revert to the ownership of the state.

The properties affected by this ancient law are those located on land within fifty metres from the sea or clifftop edge and within thirty metres in the case of a riverbank.

In the case of Ericeira, it is a coastal town – like so many in Portugal – with a history that goes back many hundreds of years and clifftops lined with very old properties, but not that many legal documents proving the ownership for such a long period of time.

The Ericeira group was formed back in 2005 – when this old law was reviewed – and comprised of twenty property owners.  The group is now made up of more than 80 owners who with the assistance of lawyers and historians, meet regularly to discuss their actions against this preposterous measure.

Earlier this year the group sent a formal letter to the Ministry of the Environment, which apparently has dismissed the subject by passing it onto the Secretary of State for the Environment and no satisfactory reply to the letter was ever received.

Several political groups have also contested the complexity of the process for property owners to legalize their situation, but haven’t really said anything about completely abolishing this old law.

According to Antonio Romalho – president of the National Road Authority – the current system requires 43 million Euro to maintain, thus absorbing a whopping 29% of the tolls’ value charged to drivers, and it’s 4% of the company’s expenses.

While at a press conference to present the company’s results, he added that they are working on a new model alongside the Via Verde with road operator Ascendi in order to cut costs to around 10 to 15% of the company’s revenue.

According to the Portuguese business newspaper Dinheiro Vivo, the new system will work like the one currently used on large motorways and is due to be implemented in 2014.

The new system is being tested on the A23 – connecting Torres Novas to Guarda – in order to test its various features. The new system is being described as being simpler, and will feature toll gates with only one camera, because the vehicles will cross the gate at slower speeds.

The new gates will be installed in every entrance or exit of the road in question, and this means that all road accesses which are currently free will become paid in the future, and that the 77 toll gates will be replaced by newer ones.

According to the same newspaper one of the solutions is to make the electronic devices – similar to Via Verde – mandatory in every vehicle. This sounds like a tall order but when you consider that the government said they will this in their talks with Troika, there doesn’t seem to be any way back from it.

Sergio Monteiro – the Secretary of State of Public Works – while refusing to make a comment on the matter did say that the new system will lower the tolls because the same amount from the first to the last kilometer will be charged, which doesn’t happen with the current system.