Santa Cruz Helps Support Restaurants

Hope – by Sam Gannon – available from Amazon

Sometimes All We Need Is A Little Divine Intervention

Hope Crescent hasn’t lived up to its name for a long time. That is until ex-rock songstress, the Reverend Dolores Lane becomes the new vicar at St. Matthews. Accompanied by her unruly pets she is determined to bring her community together through – gardening! Ruth Bennet is living under the oppressive memory of her dead husband Harry, and is desperate to escape the life she is trapped in. Like everyone else Dolores is mesmerised by Witching’s Field and the tree that lives there. Dolores has another problem; the local council want to sell the land to a local developer. Time is running out, and Dolores is under pressure to save her community, the tree, and the secret that it has guarded for almost a century.

The Mayor of Santa Cruz, Filipe Sousa, announced that commercial spaces rented from the Municipality of Santa Cruz would be exempt from rent payments until the 30th of September. At the same time, an exceptional proposal was approved to support businesses by allowing the extension of terrace spaces to be increased to a maximum of 100%, thus allowing for social distancing and greater customer security.

In this exceptional ruling, traders who are currently unable to have terraces due to municipal regulations may apply for an ‘exceptional terrace allocation.’

The mayor explained that these incentive and support measures would help minimise the detrimental impact that Covid-19 has had on the local economy, namely commerce, restaurants and tourism.

In addition, the opening of a ‘donation’ bank account was approved. This, they said, will create transparency regarding donations the Câmara receives to help those who are struggling. Filipe Sousa stressed that a businessman from the municipality, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated 10,000 euros when he learned that there are children in the parish who don’t have enough food to eat because the school canteens are closed. Another individual, despite being hospitalised, also donated €100 to help those in need.

The mayor praised the “goodwill and social sensitivity” of these people and guaranteed that the municipality “will make the best use of these donations for the benefit of those most in need. Therefore, the opening of the bank account aims to guarantee transparency for these and future donations.”

Samantha Gannon

info at madeira-weekly.com

COVID – relax…

Santa Cruz Helps Support Restaurants

Public Holidays 2023