The City Council shares with the Neighborhood Council the roadmap marked by the technicians that is followed after the ruling on Serra Gelada

Benidorm Neighborhood Council held a meeting today in the municipal Plenary Hall during which its members were informed of the 'roadmap' that the City Council is following in the case of the recent ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community on Sierra Helada, which condemned the council to compensate two companies with 283 million euros plus legal interest for not having complied with an urban planning agreement that affects land located in the natural park.

In this matter, Mayor Toni Pérez has specified that “there is an order that is not final” and has clarified that the procedural situation “is the same as that which was unanimously agreed upon by the Board of Spokespersons before it was made known by the media". In that sense, the first mayor indicated to the members of the Neighborhood Council that at the meeting "it was agreed to request a clarification of the sentence in its terms in case there was any error and that it be complemented." In this way, once with the clarification is clear and "depending on what he says, an appeal will be filed before the Supreme Court, but not before."

Toni Pérez wanted to make it very clear that “that is the roadmap that the technicians have set out” while he recalled that “the City Council had always been right in this case in all previous instances.” For this reason, Pérez has conveyed to the Neighborhood Council that “what the City Council is doing now is very clear: defending the general interest under the same criteria.”

After reiterating that his “commitment” to the municipal groups is to report on the clarification of the sentence “as soon as it arrives,” the mayor has insisted that “at no time has there been any change in criteria on the part of this City Council or this government.” because we have always acted as the technicians have told us.”

Likewise, asked about an alleged negotiation with the companies to pay the sentence, the first mayor clarified that at this procedural moment “we politicians cannot negotiate anything, it is illegal. Those evaluations must be made by the judges.” He has also taken the opportunity to reject the idea that a hypothetical payment of the sentence will increase the rates of Benidorm residents. “That is impossible because the rates cannot be affected by anything that is unrelated to the cost of the service itself. No rate will increase to comply with the sentence,” he added.

In the same Neighborhood Council, the AFA Marina Baixa association has revealed its economic problems as a result of a call for subsidies from the Generalitat that did not come out last year and that left them without resources that they had, which they estimated at 52,000 euros. The mayor has indicated that the City Council “is working to solve this situation” and that the Conselleria has already called for this subsidy “for two years” (2023-2024), although he has admitted that “what worries us is the delay that may be in the payment and that is why we work so that the resolution arrives as soon as possible.”

On the other hand, some councilors have stressed the importance of making proposals for participatory budgets that “although they are not ultimately chosen to be executed based on technical or economic criteria, we all know that on many occasions they end up being carried out as investments or actions outside the budgets themselves. participatory”. Fernando Montes, councilor, has defended the presentation of proposals "because it is an unbeatable way to build a city together."