The City Council assumes the increase in costs of the waste consortium and avoids the increase in the garbage rate for the residents of Benidorm

Benidorm City Council will assume from its municipal budget the increase in costs of the Zonal Waste Consortium and will thus avoid such an increase affecting the receipt of garbage paid by the residents. This measure can be made effective thanks to the approval yesterday of a budget modification that went ahead in full only with the favorable votes of the government team. The PSOE municipal group spoke out against it, while Cs abstained.

As argued by the Councilor for Finance and Contracting, Aida García Mayor, the costs of the waste collection and street cleaning service have increased, and by 6.49% that of selective collection and the municipal solid waste transfer service. However, she explained, "most of this increase in costs is due to waste disposal by the Consorcio Zonal de Residuos."

Despite the fact that in its day Benidorm positioned itself against such an increase, recalled the mayor, "the management of the Consortium approved some rates that affect the contribution that Benidorm has to make and that supposes an increase of the planned budget of 33.34% about the year 2021”.

Thus, according to what he explained, the price per ton of waste rises by 11.5%, the repercussion of the new regional tax on the rejection of waste to landfills represents an expense of 206,720.97 euros, the management of consortium ecoparks increases by 298.2 % and rises from 254,000 euros paid in 2021 to 759,573 in 2022.

Likewise, the Consortium has included a provision to co-finance investments passed on to municipalities of 423,100 euros and since June of this year, the rate per ton of waste has increased by 14.95% and goes from 79.99 euros to 89.65 plus VAT.

All this means that, as approved by the Consortium, Benidorm's contributions in 2022 will be 4,487,362.16 compared to 3,038,294.16 euros in 2021.

"That is equal to 47.69% more and it has a lot to do with the new state law on waste and the regional law," said García Mayor.

In view of the data and forecasts, the technical reports emphasize, as the mayor advanced, that the municipal tax "is unbalanced by the mismatch in the forecasts caused by this increase." To achieve balance “it would be necessary to increase it by 12.80%, which is what the garbage rate should increase. But this government is not going to do it and it will be assumed, therefore, charged to the municipal budget” revealed the Councilor for Finance and Contracting.

Despite these circumstances, “we will continue to help families and businesses because we are going to assume these service costs with the municipal budget. It could mean a lot of money for families and companies but we are not going to allow it, despite the fact that they are expenses required by the Waste Consortium”.

Lastly, the councilor regretted that both the Consortium and the Generalitat "have retroactively passed on the payments to June of this year, and thereby making the municipalities pay unforeseen amounts of money."