Benidorm incorporates 10.8 million euros of 2023 savings into the budget, which will mostly be allocated to social spending and to boost the economy

Benidorm City Council is going to incorporate into the 2024 municipal budget a total of 10,769,915.34 euros from the savings obtained in 2023, the majority of which will be used to increase the items planned for social spending and to boost the local economy. This was announced this Tuesday by the city mayor, Toni Pérez, in a press conference in which he reported the results of last year's budget settlement and the corresponding budget modification, after his opinion in committee. information from the Treasury and its inclusion in the agenda of the plenary session to be held next Friday, the 28th.

In this way, the City Council maintains “the same tone” as in previous years, in which savings “served to increase the aid, subsidies and programs planned to serve the families and economic fabric of Benidorm”, as stated. as the first mayor has highlighted.

The mayor has announced that “the money that the City Council has managed to save in 2023 thanks to the good economic management of this government team will be reinvested in families and the productive fabric, providing resources to the items that we believe deserve. more financing, especially those in the social field, and reissuing projects that already carry the Benidorm seal, such as the '#BenidormTeDaMás' consumer voucher campaign, which will have a new edition from December 15 to 31 this year.

Toni Pérez explained that "following the administrative procedure, the budget modifications will be fully carried out to incorporate those almost 10.8 million euros of Treasury Remaining", the majority of which, 8,897,228.28 euros will be for General Expenses and another 1,872,687.06 euros for Expenses with Affected Financing. Specifically, for public transport -442,279.50 euros- and conservation of sewage infrastructure -1,430,407.56-.

Regarding General Expenses, the funds will be incorporated into chapters 2, 4 and 6 of the municipal budget. They will increase items in concepts such as Social Welfare, Health, Culture, Historical and Cultural Heritage, Sports, Education and Educational Promotion, Senior Citizens, Equality, Nursery Schools, Primary Education or Parks and Gardens, as Pérez has explained.

The mayor has announced that the amounts that will be used to finance Chapter 6 investments reach 4,647,000, among which 900,000 euros are planned to improve the lighting of sports facilities; 600,000 for the expansion of the Sant Jaume Cemetery and the improvement of its surroundings; 400,000 euros for renovation works on hydraulic infrastructure on Capitán Cortés Street; 285,000 euros to continue the renaturalization of the Els Tolls neighbourhood; 350,000 for the second phase project of Mediterranean Avenue; or 40,000 euros for the writing of the Benidorm Urban Agenda.

Likewise, 1,700,000 euros will be used to complement the subsidy of 645,174 euros from the Alicante Provincial Council to carry out a new edition of the consumer bonus campaign next December, which will reach 2,345,174 euros. An amount with which, as Toni Pérez has recalled, the universality of these bonds will be maintained “so that any citizen can have these bonds, a municipal resource that has clearly shown that it improves the economy of the people of Benidorm and contributes to injecting funds into the productive fabric of our city.”

The mayor has stated that the 2023 budget settlement document is “an endorsement of the good and efficient economic management that has been carried out by this government team” and has indicated that the funds resulting from these savings can be injected into the accounts. this year "because the economic situation of the City Council is good, because the resources are being worked on and managed well and now we are redistributing to continue imprinting the transformation of Benidorm with criteria and improving the daily lives of the people of Benidorm."