Last days to present proposals for the 2025 Participatory Budget

The Department of Citizenship Participation, headed by Ana Pellicer, has recalled that this week ends the deadline to present proposals for the 2025 Participatory Budget, with which the destination of at least 5% of municipal investments is determined. Pellicer has reported that the deadline for submitting proposals “will remain open until 11:59 p.m. next Friday, May 31,” and that the process “can be done both in person and on the Internet.” 

Thus, initiatives can be presented in writing at the General Registry located on the ground floor of the City Hall, from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; through the Citizen Participation platform https://benidorm.governalia.es or by sending an email to advicevecinal@benidorm.org to the attention of the Department of Citizen Participation. Likewise, the option to do it on the municipal website is also offered, at the address https://sede.benidorm.org ;

As in previous editions, all people registered in Benidorm over 18 years of age can participate in this process, “being able to share what actions they consider can be positive for the city in general or to improve more specific aspects, such as services, benefits or image of their street, their neighbourhood or the areas they usually go to.” 

Pellicer has stressed that "we are talking about a powerful participation tool, which gives voice and decision-making power to the neighbours since citizens are who determine what actions or projects have to be carried out with the Participatory Budget." At this point, the councillor recalled that "since 2016 there have been numerous works and actions that have been carried out at the proposal of the people of Benidorm and from which all citizens have benefited." 

Among these projects are several children's playgrounds in the parks of l'Aigüera and Elche, the walkway that connects Els Tolls neighbourhood with Palau d'Esports, the roundabout on Ricardo Bayona Avenue, the restoration of the old house for workers on Emilio Ortuño road or the new park located on Marina Alta avenue, as well as numerous accessibility works throughout the city.  

For all these reasons, Pellicer has encouraged citizens “to take advantage of these last few days to send us their proposals for improvement, to make together the Benidorm we want.”

Proposal submission and voting process

According to the 2025 Participatory Budget Regulation, the proposals will preferably be framed in different departments. The first covers Urban Planning, Urban Scene and Mobility. The second is Equality, Social Welfare, Health and the Elderly. The third block is Tourism, Beaches and Public Security. The fourth includes proposals related to Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, and the last is related to Environment and Street Cleaning. 

Each citizen can present as many proposals as they wish in person or online by the channels already indicated.

At https://benidorm.org/es/ayuntamiento/concejalias/participacion-ciudadana,

In the Participatory Budgets section, all the information is available. The Councilor for Participation has advanced that this year, for the first time, “thanks to new technologies, the possibility is offered for each of the initiatives to be accompanied by different graphic elements.” Specifically, according to the Regulation, two images and a short explanatory video, "where citizens can show the department where they propose to act and complement or explain the action in more detail to make it more attractive."

Once all the proposals have been collected, a telematic voting process will be opened. In this way, citizens who want to participate in the vote will find a list with all the proposals presented that meet the requirements on the City Council's website and will be able to vote on the platform for those they consider most appropriate, through the platform. https://benidorm.governalia.es, between June 10 and 30, 2024.  

After the votes, a technical commission will be in charge of evaluating and prioritizing the actions based on the distributive justice criteria included in the bases. Thus, priority will be given to actions that contribute to satisfying the basic needs of the population (water, electricity, security, education, citizen coexistence, etc.); that help reduce social inequality (gender, income, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability); those that meet environmental sustainability criteria (having nearby, renewable, decentralized and self-sufficient resources); those that benefit a greater percentage of the population; or those in which it has not been invested before or has not been invested enough. 

Subsequently, these proposals will be the subject of a technical and economic feasibility report by the City Council's technical staff, starting with the most scored and up to the maximum authorized spending limit. If any of the proposals are not technically viable, “it will be included in another list and the next most voted on the final prioritization list will be selected.”

Finally, the proposals approved by the Regulation will be submitted to the Mayor's Office for processing, taking into account the order of priority resulting from the selection process, executing in the budgeted year those works that do not require a public competition or specific technical project or to be submitted to public exhibition.