Benidorm approves the provision of street cleaning and waste collection services for 2025 worth 15.2 million

Benidorm City Council has approved in plenary session by a large majority, the proposal for the provision of the street cleaning and urban solid waste collection service for the year 2025. A proposal in which the clarifications formulated by the municipal engineer in his report have been included and which have served as a basis for resolving the four non-suspensive objections made by the Municipal Intervention. The motion, whose points have been voted on separately, has been approved with the votes in favour of the 16 councillors of the governing team of the Popular Party, seven against from the PSOE and the abstention of the Vox councillor, to each of the proposals raised in it.

The spokesperson for the government team, Lourdes Caselles, explained that the report of the municipal engineer responsible for the management body of this contract, signed on February 27, shows his discrepancies concerning the four non-suspensive objections raised by the Intervention in another report of February 19. The difference of opinion between the Engineering department and the Intervention department, which motivated the latter's non-suspensive objections, referred to aspects such as the updated or non-updated prices of the proposal; whether the maintenance of the underground containers should be considered as an investment or as an expense; whether or not the estimate of the rental equipment to guarantee the service is oversized; or to differences of opinion on the application of the price review formula included in the concessionaire's proposal.

The councillor recalled that the plenary approved the continuity of the provision of the service in the plenary session of December 2024, as it is a basic service that must continue to be provided despite the expiration of the contract until the new tender, and added that the next step is the revision of prices that has been agreed today that "in no case will it mean an increase in the bill for citizens", she clarified.

The councillor also stated that the only objection raised by the Intervention that could be suspensive, referring to the lack of a sufficient budget item to cover the cost of the service, has already been corrected by presenting a proposal to modify the extended budget for 2024 and adapt the item to the total cost of the contract for this 2025.

The proposal approved today will expire on December 31 of this year or once the new contract starts if it is with an earlier date. According to the proposal, the provisional budget for 2025 amounts to 15,265,651.17 euros, once the fixed and variable fees have been added. The proposal specifies that the material execution budget amounts to 12.4 million, general expenses are 953,668 euros, and to this is added the industrial profit and 10% VAT. However, as explained by the government spokesperson, "these prices are provisional as they use the indexes corresponding to September of last year and will be definitively defined when the indexes for December 2024 are known."