Aveiro City Council to relaunch public tender for the new Homem Cristo Secondary School

Aveiro City Council is set to launch a new public tender for the construction of the new Homem Cristo Secondary School.

New public tender and revised budget for the Homem Cristo Secondary School

Aveiro City Council decided on Friday to cancel the public tender for building the new Homem Cristo Secondary School. The tender had been approved in October, at the end of the previous administration’s term, with a base price of €10.5 million. A project review has now made it necessary to raise the base value of the works to €12.2 million. The replacement tender will be put to a vote at one of the next council meetings.

Luís Souto, the mayor, stressed that “there is no change at all on the part of this Council compared with the previous executive”. The plan remains to move the school out of the building it has occupied for decades in the city centre and to construct a new one next to EB 2, 3 João Afonso, near the hospital. He also reiterated that the aim is still “to get the works moving forward in the shortest possible time”.

Revised project

“There was a need to revise the project,” he explained, as the reason for revoking the previously approved tender, which was never actually launched.

Rui Castilho Dias, a PS opposition councillor, argued that relocating the school into a new building, rather than refurbishing the existing one, “was not properly discussed with the entire school community”.

However, Rui Santos, the deputy mayor, recalled that this is “one of the schools covered by the agreement made between the Government of Portugal and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities, in 2023, when António Costa was prime minister”, with funding already secured.

“Fan zone” under dispute

The proposed installation of a “fan zone” in the city centre for watching Football World Cup matches sparked disagreement at yesterday’s council meeting between Luís Souto and Socialist councillors. Leonardo Costa, of the PS, asked, “six days before the World Cup, which company is going to set up the ‘fan zone’ and for what amounts”. Despite repeated questioning, the mayor did not disclose any details, saying only that “it will be known when we make the announcement”, that “someone will set it up” and that “there will be a ‘fan zone’”.

Isabel Vila-Chã accused the mayor of “arrogance and bullying”.