The plenary session approves the rescission of the towing contract and the blue zone due to the company's non-compliance

The plenary session of Benidorm City Council approved this Monday the proposal of the Mobility Councilor to initiate the contractual resolution file with the concessionaire company of the public service of the municipal crane and the blue zone due to the multiple non-compliances detected and reflected in technical reports, several of which affect essential conditions of the contract. The proposal, which also entails annulling the sanctioning file initiated last April, has gone ahead with 17 favorable votes from the municipal group of the Popular Party and Vox and with the abstention of the eight PSOE councilors.

The councillor of Mobility, Francis Muñoz, has highlighted that "the technical reports confirm that the company accumulates many non-compliances and that it continues to fail to comply, despite the sanctioning file that was opened a few months ago and the multiple technical requirements" that have been placed on it. made to redirect the situation. Specifically, the company accumulates up to seven very serious infractions in its management, five of which are cause for immediate termination of the contract: charging more than what is established by the applicable rate; not communicating to the City Council the additional collection of alleged unapproved management expenses; reduction of personnel assigned to the contract without municipal authorization; cessation of current technical assistance; non-compliance with the existence of an office open to the public on a street with regulated parking; failure to comply with the vending ATM by not dispensing money; and, finally, non-compliance with office materials and equipment.

Francis Muñoz has defended that the proposal to terminate the contract aims to “end a deficient service provided by a company that is not behaving well with citizens”, after which he has also defended that the final objective of this resolution is, precisely, the citizens: “We are concerned about the users who are suffering daily from this contract.” Finally, he regretted that "we have had to manage a bad specification all these years, which was approved in 2015 in great haste by the PSOE government on the eve of municipal elections" and he trusted that, “citizens and the general interest win.”

The plenary session of the municipal corporation has also unanimously ratified this Monday the proposal of Mayor Toni Pérez, on behalf of the Board of Spokespersons, for the granting of the City of Benidorm Cultural Distinction to the Benidorm photographer Jaume Fuster Pérez, which will be awarded in the institutional plenary session on October 9. By a large majority, with the only abstention of Vox, another proposal from the mayor for the granting of the City of Benidorm tourism awards to the Antena 3 information spaces, in the International category, has also been carried out; to the journalist Francisco José Benito, in the National category; to the British journalist Michelle Baker, in the Local category; and, finally, to the former regional Secretary of Tourism of the Generalitat Valenciana, Francesc Colomer, who will receive the Special Mention. These awards will be presented next Wednesday, September 27, coinciding with the commemoration of World Tourism Day.

Another item on the agenda that has moved forward, with the 17 votes of PP and Vox and the rejection of the socialist group, is the update of the trustees of the Visit Benidorm Foundation of the Valencian Community, the public collaboration body. private company in charge of tourism promotion. In this way, the ten members of the Board of Trustees whose appointment corresponds to the City Council are renewed, with the incorporation of the former president of Hosbec, Toni Mayor, and the professor at the University of Alicante and director of the University Institute of Tourism Research, Josep Ivars. Both will participate in this body as independent experts, along with the former president of Hosbec Pere Joan Devesa and the director of the CdT Domingo Devesa of Benidorm, Francisco Juan Martínez, who were already part of the Board of Trustees. Representing the municipal corporation will be the PP councilors Ana Pellicer, Aida García Mayor, and Lourdes Caselles; Cristina Escoda, from the PSOE, and José Miguel San Martín, from Vox.

The 2024 Participatory Budget Self-Regulation has been unanimously approved, a motion by the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Ana Pellicer, which will allow the citizens of Benidorm to participate in the preparation of next year's municipal accounts by contributing their proposals, in an exercise of participatory democracy. The councilor recalled that this text, provided by the Evaluation Commission of the Neighborhood Council, establishes that the City Council will allocate at least 5% of the total investment item to finance the proposals presented and most voted for by the neighbors, once municipal technicians have studied them and confirmed their viability.

In urban planning matters, the plenary session has also unanimously agreed to approve a new expropriation agreement by mutual agreement for the construction of the link between National Highway 332 and its connection with the Valencian Community Avenue, which will make viable what is known as Vial Discotecas and the entrances to the future shopping center. Likewise, with the favorable votes of PP and Vox and the opposition of the PSOE, the dismissal of the suspension of the plenary agreement dated July 31, 2023, approving the addendum to the urban planning agreement of the Internal Development Reform Plan of the Isolated Action Program on a plot of the Partial Plan 2/1 Poniente, where the city's new athletics track is planned, as well as the suspension of the appeal for reconsideration filed by the socialist group.

Likewise, the local government of the PP has moved forward, with the abstention of the PSOE and Vox, with the proposal of the councilor for Urban Planning, Lourdes Caselles, to correct a material error in the Consolidated Text of Modifications 1 to 22 of the Specific Ordinances of Building and Urban Land Use and Particular Planning Conditions of the PGMO of 1990; and the motion of the councilor of the Treasury, Aida García Mayor, to approve Fiscal Ordinance number 9, regulating the fee for participation in selective processes, as well as the modification of Fiscal Ordinance number 8 regulating the fee for issuing documents administrative, to adapt both prices to the real cost of these services. This point has obtained the support of PP and Vox and the dissenting vote of the socialists.

Regarding the motions presented by the political groups, the plenary session has moved forward - with 17 votes from PP and Vox - a proposal presented by the municipal group of the Popular Party to reject any type of amnesty or generalized non-individualized pardon. The PSOE has voted against it.

On the contrary, the motion presented by the socialist municipal group for the celebration of the 700th anniversary of Benidorm, which will be commemorated in May 2025, has not been approved, as it does not have the support of any other formation.