EDUSI Benidorm closes with more than 11.5 million invested and 17 projects, including El Moralet and improvements in thirty streets

Benidorm Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Development Strategy (EDUSI) has been closed with an investment of more than 11.5 million euros and 17 projects completed, according to the report from the Engineering Department transferred today by the mayor, Toni Pérez, to the Corporation groups. Among the 100% completed projects are the renovation and improvement of almost thirty streets and squares in the neighbourhoods of Els Tolls, Colonia Madrid and the surroundings of Maravall, Jaime I and El Cruce; or the creation of El Moralet Park, which reaches one million square meters of green forest area.

The call for this strategy set December 31, 2023, as the deadline to execute the actions planned in the EDUSI using European funds. In the case of Benidorm, to that date, the City Council has certified works for an amount of 11,529,546.82 euros, which corresponds to 54.29% of the strategy. As the document points out, this percentage is “slightly higher” than that predicted by these same technicians in a report dated November 21.

Toni Pérez recalled that “among the projects that have been carried out under EDUSI is the improvement of mobility in the neighbourhoods of Els Tolls and Colonia Madrid; Phase 1 of renovation of the southern area of Jaime I Avenue, which includes the remodelling of Plaza de Neptuno; the implementation of remote reading in drinking water meters throughout the EDUSI area; the acquisition of seven homes for social use; as well as different actions for the implementation of electronic administration or digital literacy, whose courses have taken more than a thousand students."

As he already announced last December, the mayor has indicated that “EDUSI is a city strategy, which was developed with the maximum participation and involvement of citizens, thinking about Benidorm in the coming years, especially in the areas with more needs for social and urban intervention, and that is why we do not give up on it.”

Hence, it has reiterated the commitment to “take on with its funds the ten projects that are currently underway or that have been awarded, such as the construction of the Séquia Mare Park youth hostel, the mediation centre, phase II of "the improvement of mobility in the area of Jaime I, the reinforcement of firefighting in El Moralet or the lighting of the new football fields of the 'Guillermo Amor' sports city."

Regarding the projects planned in the strategy that have not been started, Pérez clarified that "they continue to be part of our agenda and therefore will be resumed in new calls for European funds, in which the financing percentages are expected to be even higher." to the maximum 50% that EDUSI provided.” Programs such as the last two calls for Tourism Sustainability Plans, in which Benidorm has already obtained 11.6 million euros, are 100% financed by Europe.

"It is possible that these projects, such as the renovation of the bullring, can be carried out in the future at no cost to Benidorm, instead of the 1.7 million that would have had to be contributed by executing it in the EDUSI," he pointed out after remember that the strategy did cover the drafting of the project, for an amount of 374,670.81 euros.

Toni Pérez has clarified that "not having completed the EDUSI Benidorm 100% does not mean that money will be lost, but rather that not all the initially planned investment is made, nor does it imply that the City Council has to return funds, since to date "Today, not a single euro has come in from the central government, having assumed with its resources the 11.5 million total of the actions certified as of December 31." The amount that the City Council has pending to receive from the Government of Spain is around 5.7 million euros.

EDUSI Benidorm

As you may remember, Benidorm was selected in the third call of the EDUSI, in December 2018, with a project valued at more than 21 million euros, of which 10 million came from European funds. The rest of the investment had to be assumed by the City Council with its funds.
The start date of the EDUSI, once the administrative procedures established by the call itself had been completed, was at the beginning of 2020, shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, which conditioned the development of the first projects.

Toni Pérez recalled that “we have had the same deadline to finalize our EDUSI, December 31, as the municipalities that obtained funds in the 2016 and 2017 calls.” "We would have liked to reach a higher execution percentage," he noted, "but the Government of Spain has not authorized the extension that would have allowed us to be on equal terms with the municipalities whose EDUSI was approved one or more years ago." two years before Benidorm.”

In any case, the mayor has stressed that "our execution percentage is similar to that of the Valencian municipalities that participated in the third call and that have made their provisional data public, such as l'Alfàs del Pi, or even higher than that of City Councils from previous calls.”