Benidorm opens the application deadline for the new ecological urban gardens next to ‘Pepita Esperanza’ center of La Cala

The Department of Environment opens this Monday, September 2, the application deadline for the new ecological urban gardens that have been created on a municipal plot next to the center ‘Pepita Esperanza Llinares Llorca’. The councillor of the area, Mónica Gómez, explained that "the term will be open throughout the month of September" and that "the requirements, criteria for the award and cultivation of these new urban gardens will be the same" as for those existing on Italia street, being able to practice only "organic farming and for self-consumption".

Gómez has indicated that “last July the City Council began the work for the creation of these new urban gardens in a municipal plot that was abandoned, and now is recovered and integrated into the urban scene, also allocating it to a service demanded by the citizenship".

Thus, she recalled that "in the first phase, in which 22 urban gardens were created on Italia Street that have been operating since the beginning of 2017, the demand tripled the number of available plots", hence the search for "new locations for advance in this project ”.

The Councilor for the Environment has detailed that to be a winner of one of these orchards you have to “be registered in Benidorm for a minimum period of one year - seniority will be taken into account - or be an association registered in the Register of Associations of the City Council ; and be physically trained for agricultural work. ” Interested persons must register by means of a standardized instance in the Department of the Environment, providing a photocopy of the DNI or document that legally replaces it, a certificate of registration, and where appropriate accreditation of the retirement status.

Gómez has clarified that, as in the first phase, “the awarding of the plots will be determined by lottery, and those over 65 years of age, unemployed residents and people with functional diversity will have priority.” Likewise, and as it happened in the first phase, “some plots will be reserved for neighborhood associations; but in addition, they will also be transferred to the social entities that have their headquarters in the Pepita Esperanza center, so that they can use these orchards as part of their therapeutic treatments, something that some of them had already been doing in other spaces ”.

This second phase has involved an investment of 47,865.40 euros. In addition to implementing a system that avoids water losses, shadow areas will be generated and the environment of the plot will be adapted.

The head of Environment has advanced that "this second phase is not going to be the last, since it is already working to find new locations to create new orchards."