Benidorm approves the new tender for the bus station, which includes the management of the hotel and increases the contract to 40 years

Benidorm City Council has approved by the majority, with the favorable votes of the PP and PSOE groups and the abstention of Cs, to put the management contract for the bus station out to tender again through a public, open, and harmonized tender. In such tender, the term of the contract will be increased to 40 years and the management of the hotel and the first floor of the underground car park will be included in a new lot -the third. That was the proposal of the mayor, Toni Pérez, which was elaborated from different technical reports.

In this way, the City Council has archived the procedure by which a minimum of five companies were to be invited in each of the two lots initially included in the tender: the first referred to the terminal, the commercial area of the dock, and outdoor parking; and the second, to the shopping center, to the hotel and underground parking.

According to the approved proposal, the still concessionaire of the station, at the request of the City Council, agrees to waive clause 7 of the mutual agreement resolution agreement of the previous contract and thus undertakes to "liberalize the operation of the hotel" of the complex in case that another company is awarded.

Thus, as explained by the government spokesperson, Lourdes Caselles, after no company submitted to the first tender and the negotiated procedure did not bear fruit without subsequent publicity, "this new contract liberalizes the hotel, which was not liberalized before". Caselles has specified that the current company "will not ask for the legal interest of the money that would correspond to it" and has affirmed that "this specification is what Benidorm and the station property deserve to give the best service" for which "I congratulate and thank the great work of the Intervention, Contracting, and Secretary departments" at the same time has blamed the opposition for "at no time have they contributed anything to the preparation of the specifications".

For the adjudication, the spokesperson has indicated that "any offer that integrates the three lots will take precedence over those that offer separately. In any case, Caselles has detailed, "if the offer does not reach 20 million euros, it will not be awarded." It should be remembered that the contract for the management and operation of the bus station is put out to tender for a price of 24,516,647.32 euros. This amount covers the work carried out and is not amortized.

Likewise, a proposal by the Councilor for Street Cleaning, José Ramón González de Zárate, has gone ahead by the majority, so the Ministry orders an audit of the company Vaersa, awarded the Benidorm transfer plant, as a result of a report from the municipal technical engineer on the current situation of the waste transfer and transport service.

The proposal also requests the Ministry to urge the company to adjust the real price of the service it provides "and to adopt the appropriate measures for the characterization of bio-waste to facilitate city councils to segregate at the source thereof".

José Ramón González de Zárate, Councilor for Street Cleaning, has argued that the company has not given any response to the City Council's requests for price revisions. "Benidorm represents more than 57% of the total production of the transfer plant and is the main one affected by the prices and measures adopted by Vaersa in its management" explained the mayor, who regretted that the regional administration, "We say that we must take our waste to the plant and meanwhile many other municipalities in the region can go directly to the El Campello landfill. Why do some yes and others no? Why does Benidorm have to pay 18 euros per ton and is forced to go to the transfer plant? Very simple, because we are almost 60% of their volume and it is a business for them. If our trucks go directly to El Campello, the transfer plant would have to close”.

In addition, the mayor has expressed his complaints about the fact that the Waste Law is not complied with "since not one euro has been reduced from us" and has given the example of El Campello, "which does not pay for its waste for the fact of having the landfill there”. González de Zárate has reiterated the need for an audit "and that they return the money that they have overcharged us since 2015."

In urban matters, with the votes of the government team, the addendum to the urban agreement of the PRI endowment of the program of isolated action of block A-2 of the Western Sector, in which an athletics track will be built, has been approved. According to said addendum, the obligation of financial compensation to the City Council by the urbanization agent is replaced by the obligation that the latter executes the earthmoving works and complementary works, necessary and sufficient to transform the plot and enable the implantation on it of the projected running track. Once the agreement is signed, the company will have one month to request the license from the City Council and when it is granted, it will have three months to start them and twelve months to finish them.

Lourdes Caselles has highlighted in this regard that this operation will also allow "the regeneration of the Racó de l'Infern quarry in Serra Gelada thanks to the transfer of land from the Poniente plot".

Also in urban matters, separate expropriation agreements have been unanimously approved for four farms affected by the construction of Vial Discotecas. “They have already come on other occasions with other plots to proceed with the creation of Vial Discotheques. Since 2015 we have signed agreements to acquire the land by mutual agreement. There was a modification with a cattle track and new expropriations are necessary, which are what we bring here" Caselles detailed, who thanked the "collaborative attitude of all the owners".

In the same session, the agreement of the Local Government Board was ratified by which the company CAINUR S.L.P. for the tasks of the facultative direction of the works of the link of the N-332 and its connection with the avenue of the Valencian Community, known as Vial Discotheques.

It has been unanimously approved to start the procedure for granting distinctions and decorations by the Generalitat to the members of the Benidorm Local Police, public congratulations to Francisco Javier Sánchez Molina and David Fontanet González for their intervention on April 4 when they broke down the door of a house and saved the life of a citizen who was unconscious on the floor due to inhalation of smoke from a fire that had started in his kitchen, proceeding to remove him to be treated by the health services.

Extraordinary dispatches

Finally, in the chapter on extraordinary dispatches, a budget modification, number eight, amounting to 18,115,369.07 euros, has been unanimously approved, through which part of the remaining treasury is incorporated to provide the extended budget with adequate credit and enough. The proposal, as indicated by the Councilor for Finance, Aida García Mayor, "includes the credit supplement for expenses with affected financing such as the Tourism Sustainability Plan, the WWTP, the Mobility and Transportation Plan or the renovation project of the Levante catenary, among others, for an amount of 5,900,433.92 euros”.

García Mayor has referred to the current extended budget and has specified that "it was not approved due to technical indications and later so as not to condition the new corporation". Likewise, the mayor has recalled that "if Benidorm had received the investments that were due from other higher administrations, we would now have 30 million in debt." At that point, she has cited "the more than 24 million destined to help families, the self-employed and companies during the pandemic."

The plenary session concluded with several emotional farewells from those councilors of this corporation who will not repeat in the next one, while the mayor Toni Pérez, ended by thanking all the members of the corporation "for their work and commitment in these years".