The residents of Benidorm vote in the Assembly this Thursday about the proposals for the 2024 Participatory Budget

The residents in Benidorm will vote in the Assembly this Thursday, November 2, on the citizen proposals for inclusion in the 2024 Participatory Budget. An Assembly will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Casa del Fester in which the proponents will have two minutes to present and defend their proposals.

The Councilor for Citizenship Participation, Ana Pellicer, has reported that “this call closes with a record of participation with 148 proposals submitted related to Urban Planning, Urban Scene, Mobility, Equality, Social Welfare, Health, Seniors, Tourism, Beaches, Public Security, Education, Culture, Youth, Sports, Environment and Street Cleaning.”

Pellicer has pointed out that “this volume of proposals shows that citizens are increasingly involved with this participation tool because residents know that it is effective and that the City Council complies by executing and implementing the actions that are included in the Budget. Participatory”.

As an example, she has recounted, “all the actions that we have carried out since 2016 and that have accounted for at least 5% of the City Council's investment budget each year.” Thus, she referred to the adapted children's games in Elche Park, the access ramp to Levante Beach in Torrejó, the accessible sidewalks in Els Tolls neighborhood, the adaptation of traffic lights for deaf-blind people in Comunidad Valenciana Avenue at the junction with Europa Avenue and Bélgica Street, the pedestrian walkway that connects Italia Street with Palau d'Esports, the elimination of architectural barriers and improvement of road and pedestrian safety in Els Tolls, the expansion of the park Els Ametllers, the comprehensive renovation of Elche park, the ramp on Herrerías street, the improvement of accessibility in the downtown area, the creation of a roundabout at the intersection of Ricardo Bayona and Venezuela, the urbanization of Finca Barrina, the adaptation of Plaza de las Tiendas, the rehabilitation of the road worker's booth in Emilio Ortuño or the creation of playgrounds and green areas, among others.
The Councilor for Citizenship Participation has encouraged the registered population “to go to the Assembly and take part in this voting and decision process, and in this way choose among all the city we want.”

In addition to attending the meeting this Thursday, for the second consecutive year, the Department has enabled telematic voting to expand the scope of the initiative. This telematic vote will be available from November 8 until 11:59 p.m. on November 30 and will be articulated through https://benidorm.governalia.es, a platform launched in 2022 thanks to a subsidy from the Provincial Council of Alicante.

After both votes, in person and online, a technical commission will be in charge of evaluating and prioritizing the actions based on the criteria of distributive justice included in the basis of the Participatory Budget Self-Regulation.

Thus, priority will be given to actions that contribute to satisfying the basic needs of the population (water, electricity, security, education, citizen coexistence, etc.); that help reduce social inequality (gender, income, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability); those that meet environmental sustainability criteria (having nearby, renewable, decentralized and self-sufficient resources); those that benefit a greater percentage of the population; or those in which it has not been invested before or has not been invested enough.

Subsequently, these proposals will be the subject of a technical and economic feasibility report by the City Council's technical staff, starting with the most scored and up to the maximum authorized spending limit. If any of the proposals are not technically viable, "it will be included in another list and the next most voted in the final prioritization list will be selected."

Finally, the proposals approved by the Self-Regulation will be submitted to the Mayor's Office for processing, taking into account the order of priority resulting from the selection process, executing in the budgeted year those actions that do not require a public competition or specific technical project or to be submitted to public exhibition.