The Neighborhood Council proposes a balcony decorating contest to improve Christmas decorations

The last Neighbourhood Council meeting of the year, held today in ordinary session, proposed holding a balcony decorating contest starting next year, which could be extended to streets, squares, and avenues, in preparation for the Christmas season. This proposal aims to extend the decorations to as much of the town as possible and encourage residents to get involved and participate in decorating the city.

The proposal arose during the agenda item concerning Christmas lighting, in which some council members noted the lack of such lighting in areas like Poniente, "where it would be interesting to increase it."

A proposal was also put forward to include the phrase "Bon Nadal" (Merry Christmas) in the Christmas lights.

The Councillor for Citizenship Participation, Ana Pellicer, accepted the Neighbourhood Council's suggestion and announced that "we will have a meeting to analyse together how this can be carried out and do everything possible to improve the Christmas decorations and lighting."

Several council members considered that holding this competition would be an incentive for residents to participate and, together, create a more widespread Christmas atmosphere that covers as many areas as possible. They indicated that this competition would complement the existing Christmas window display contest.

The session also addressed the situation of street cleaning in Benidorm. The need for improvement was highlighted, as was the behaviour of residents who do not cooperate with maintenance or adhere to the designated times for depositing their waste.

In this regard, some council members criticised the fact that many restaurants and shops are not using cardboard recycling containers properly and are not placing cardboard boxes inside correctly folded. "This causes the container to become clogged very quickly, even when it is almost empty, preventing anyone from depositing more items," they pointed out. Therefore, they requested that the City Council contact these establishments to ensure they comply with the regulations.

Pellicer, for his part, noted regarding street cleaning that the current contract dates back to 1996 and that “the city has changed a lot since then.” He therefore announced that the new contract proposal will be approved by the full council on Friday, “and will allow for significant improvements in this area.”

Another issue discussed was the request to consider a possible change to the pavement at the entrance to Elche Park, whose white colour “causes it to be constantly dirty due to the continuous flow of people, despite being cleaned regularly,” as one of the council members explained, requesting that it be changed to a darker colour.

During the questions and comments section, the Neighbourhood Council unanimously congratulated the Department of Social Welfare “for its continuous, quiet, and dedicated work on the extraordinary ‘Compass’ project, which deserves everyone’s recognition this year,” they emphasised.

This initiative, spearheaded by the City Council, is a community prevention program designed to identify vulnerable elderly individuals or those at risk of isolation, primarily due to unwanted loneliness. For this reason, the councillor for the department, Ángela Zaragozí, and staff from her department recently met with representatives from the Neighbourhood Council to explain the project in detail and request their collaboration. The goal is to reach more people who may be in this situation and to act more effectively.

The Neighbourhood Council was also briefed on the specifics of Benidorm's destination sustainability plans: ‘Vision 360’ and ‘Green Benidorm,’ as well as the ‘Urban Heat Island Effect’ study.

Visit from the President of the Generalitat

During the Neighbourhood Council meeting, the new President of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, visited the Council. He was in Benidorm for an official event and wanted to stop by the Council Chamber to greet the members and praise their work, stating that "residents know their town best and can best communicate their needs to us politicians." Pérez Llorca, accompanied by the Mayor of Benidorm, took the opportunity to wish everyone present a happy holiday season.