Benidorm approves its Urban Agenda with ten strategic objectives to promote sustainable and integrated development

Benidorm City Council plenary session has approved this Friday the Urban Agenda of Benidorm with ten strategic objectives to promote sustainable and integrated growth of the municipality until 2030. The proposal has been approved by a large majority, with the votes in favour of the Popular Party and the PSOE and against the vote of the Vox councillor. The spokesperson for the local government and councillor for Urban Planning, Lourdes Caselles, has explained that this strategic document represents a roadmap to make Benidorm “a more sustainable, more innovative and more resilient city” and also “promoting participatory governance and integrated growth”.

For the preparation of this Urban Agenda for Benidorm, Lourdes Caselles has recalled that various meetings have been held with councillors, social agents and advisory councils and that, in addition, a citizen survey has been carried out to define the lines of action that will mark this roadmap. As a result of all this, an extensive document has been drawn up, which sets out the five major challenges or horizons that will now mark the city's strategic lines: Economic diversification - Horizon of opportunities; Adaptation to Climate Change - Green horizon; Mobility and Sustainable Transport - Connected horizon; Energy Transition and Urban Sustainability - Sustainable horizon; and, finally, Social cohesion and housing - Inclusive horizon, as explained by the spokesperson.

Likewise, the Councillor for Urban Planning has highlighted that "these horizons or strategic lines will be materialised in a Local Action Plan, made up of various measures to be adopted and each of them being made up of a total of 25 actions and whose budget can be estimated at 188,200,000 euros, VAT included". According to him, “the measures that require the most investment are those called ‘Inclusive Horizon’ and ‘Connected Horizon’”, which include measures related to equal opportunities for all (access to housing, integration of residents and tourists); the internal renovation of Benidorm (with energy rehabilitation projects and renovation of public spaces); measures in the field of universal accessibility, mobility, sustainable transport; and the recovery of public space for citizens.

“It is about making a better Benidorm together”, Caselles argued, also remembering that the City Council has already carried out or is carrying out some of the actions outlined in this document, among which he gave as an example the construction of 91 protected homes in Poniente, which is promoted by the Generalitat on a plot of municipal land ceded by the City Council and whose project “has already entered this City Council and is being studied by the technicians for its execution”.

With the same votes in favour from PP and PSOE and the vote against from Vox, the plenary session has also approved the adhesion of the Benidorm City Council to the declaration of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, on the occasion of the commemoration of '8-M International Women's Day', which this year has as its motto 'For all women and girls: Rights, Equality and Empowerment'. The Councillor for Equality, Ángela Zaragozí, has publicly reiterated the “firm and unwavering commitment to promote and defend the rights of women and girls, without distinction of origin, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability or any other condition”, as stated in the FEMP declaration, and has defended “the need to strengthen equality, conciliation and co-responsibility policies, especially at the local level, to guarantee the full exercise of their rights and reduce the wage gap”.

Zaragozí has ​​also highlighted the need to “continue building cities and towns free of gender-based violence,” to “promote projects so that new generations grow up in an environment of co-responsibility between men and women,” or to “encourage the participation of women at all levels and support female entrepreneurship,” among others.

The municipal Corporation has also put forward, in this case unanimously, the proposal of the mayor Toni Pérez to name the street between the avenues of ‘9 d’Octubre’, ‘La Llibertat’ and Nicaragua, where the residence and day centre for the elderly of Foietes is located, after ‘Metge Josep Pérez Fuster’, in recognition of this Benidorm doctor and researcher. The proposal of the first mayor, which has been defended by the spokesperson Lourdes Caselles, recalls that on February 23rd it was 130 years since the inoculation of the first serum of the anti-diphtheria vaccine by Josep Pérez Fuster in Valencia, a milestone that he carried out on February 23rd, 1825, so that “his role as a doctor and researcher was key to the arrival of anti-diphtheria serotherapy in Spain”. Among the many positions held by this Benidorm native, those of President of the Medicine Section of the Valencian Medical Institute, Director of the Valencia Hygiene Institute and Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine stand out.

Likewise, the plenary session has also unanimously approved the recognition of the municipality to three outstanding local sportsmen, such as Nerea Pérez Machado and the brothers Juan and Miguel Martínez Munuera, using a motion raised to the plenary session by the mayor Toni Pérez to name three football fields located in the ‘Guillermo Amor’ Sports City after them. Specifically, the field until now known as ‘Anexo’ will be called Nerea Pérez Machado, as a tribute to this footballer who currently plays for Villarreal, while the two new 11-a-side football fields (four 8-a-side football fields) will be called ‘Juan and Miguel Martínez Munuera Football Fields’, in recognition of these two First Division referees. After the unanimous approval of this proposal, the councillors gave a strong round of applause to these three sportsmen, whose relatives were among the public following the session. Mayor Toni Pérez has publicly congratulated them on behalf of Benidorm and stated that “the approval of motions such as this must be an inspiring task to achieve a better Benidorm”.

The specifications and the award procedure for the public concession of the bar-cafeteria of the municipal market in the area comprised by stalls 16, 17 and 18 have been approved unanimously. The concession, as specified by the Councillor for Commerce, Javier Jordá, has a deadline until June 30, 2025 and the award price will be 219,247.75 euros.

"We want to make a more attractive market and for it to be a reference as it is in other municipalities", said the Councillor.

Likewise, with the unanimous vote of the political groups, the act of transfer of three plots to the City Council for the creation of a roundabout at the confluence of Avenida Severo Ochoa and Camino de los Torreros has been approved.

The Strategic Plan for Subsidies for the year 2025 has also been approved unanimously, a document based on the General Law on Subsidies, whose priority objectives include, according to the Councillor for Finance, Aida García Mayor, “the promotion of all types of activities of public utility or social interest, or the production of a public purpose, always non-profit, collaborating in the development and promotion of activities with little economic return, in addition to promoting the creation of associative networks and citizen participation in municipal action, including the different prizes that are awarded when there is a prior request from the beneficiaries”.

This Strategic Plan will also establish and standardise, for the different lines and programmes of aid and subsidies of the City Council, a set of principles and bases of execution common to them. It also aims to improve and rationalise the municipal management of subsidies, as well as regulate the regime to which the granting and justification of the subsidies to be processed by the City Council must conform. It will also be governed by a series of general principles of action such as publicity, free competition, objectivity, transparency, equality, non-discrimination, effectiveness and efficiency, budgetary stability, spending rule and control and analysis of the adequacy of the purposes of the requesting entities to the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

The plenary session has reported on the estimation of the appeal filed by the City Council against resolution 490/2021 of the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency in the file relating to hotel licenses, which annuls the contested acts and condemns the defendant to pay costs.

In the extraordinary reports, the update of the Anti-Fraud Plan of Benidorm City Council has been unanimously approved. According to the spokesperson Lourdes Caselles, the update focuses on point 7, relating to the Responsible Body, since there have been changes in some positions that make it up and it was necessary to modify its composition. “Likewise, the composition of the Committee is expanded to include the areas of IT and European Funds” he said. On the other hand, it is used “to introduce improvements in the wording and replace the risk assessment tool “risk matrix” with the “risk map” tool in compliance with the cross-cutting principles of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.