The investment will go to the implementation of Low Emissions Zone and the digital transformation of urban transport
Benidorm achieves 3,181,000 euros from the Ministry's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan
Pérez emphasizes that the subsidy has been obtained "because Benidorm has known how to do things well and be a benchmark in mobility and sustainability"
The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has decided to award a subsidy of 3,181,000 euros to Benidorm City Council, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, for the implementation of the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE) and the digital and sustainable transformation of urban transport.
The resolution of the General Secretariat of Transport and Mobility, still provisional, has already published the list of applications admitted in this first call for the aid program for municipalities, in which the actions demanded by the City Council at the time of submitting to the summons; a total of seven.
The program has a total provision of 1,500 million euros, of which 1,000 million will be granted in this first call charged to the 2022 and 2023 annuities. The program is financed by the Next Generation funds of the European Union.
Benidorm City Council attended the call to undertake various actions. The largest amount was related to the implementation of the Low Emissions Zone, for which 1,422,000 euros have been obtained. Other approved actions have been the adaptation and implementation of park-and-ride parks with guided parking (450,000 euros), the acquisition of electric buses (400,000 euros), the management of the Urban Distribution of Goods (DUM) in the Low Emissions Zone (270,000 euros), the implementation of secure parking for bicycles with improved signalling through 'metrobici' (225,000 euros), elements associated with the implementation of the ZBE (207,000 euros) and the electric bus recharging system in the station's park-and-ride of Buses (207,000 euros).
The program of aid to municipalities for the implementation of ZBE also establishes the obligation to have a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMUS) "which Benidorm has already had for a long time", as recalled by the mayor Toni Pérez.
The mayor has assessed "very satisfactorily" the granting of this new subsidy, which he has attributed to the fact that "Benidorm has known how to do things well and we have become a benchmark when it comes to talking about mobility and sustainability".
In Benidorm, the Low Emissions Zone "will cover an area of 35 hectares and will be divided into three sub-areas, such as Levante, the urban centre and Poniente" according to Pérez, who has underlined in this regard that "thanks to the policy in favour of the active and sustainable mobility that we have been carrying out for years, in Benidorm we already have a long way to go”.
The ZBE, by definition, includes the territorial area made up of the set of delimited public roads that present geographical continuity in which special measures are implemented to regulate access, circulation and parking of vehicles to reduce polluting emissions. In the case of municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, such as Benidorm, the law establishes the obligation to establish ZBE "no later than 2023".
The material execution period of the actions, as well as the real and effective payments, will be between February 1, 2020, and December 31, 2024. The basis of the call established that the first advance payment of the subsidy will be made from June 1, 2022, and that the second advance payment will be made from April 1, 2023.