Benidorm completes more than 85% of the budget for ‘Parenthesis Grants’ and complements them with its own resources

Benidorm City Council has carried out more than 85% of the budget foreseen for 'Parenthesis Grants', financed in three ways by Generalitat Valenciana, Alicante Provincial Council and the local administration and aimed at alleviating the effects of the pandemic on a number of of sectors determined by the Consell de Ximo Puig. Some 'Parenthesis Grants' to which a part of the productive fabric could be accommodated and that Benidorm City Council has complemented with various lines of aid financed with 100% municipal resources -and others from the hand of Alicante Provincial Council- to "achieve to the entire productive fabric of Benidorm without restrictions ”.
The mayor, Toni Pérez, has indicated that "from minute 1" the City Council turned to the management of these grants, "allocating all municipal and external resources for their processing"; "Extending the deadlines, calls and sectors to reach the maximum possible number of companies and freelancers", and carrying out from the Employment and Local Development Agency "an impeccable job" of "permanent coordination and contact" with associations and business groups, companies and even agencies ”.
Specifically, to facilitate access to the ‘Parentheses’, the City Council launched 3 calls, 4 extensions of sectors and beneficiary activities were carried out, and 7 extensions of application deadlines for these benefits were approved. Finally, in Benidorm, 2,094 "Parenthesis Grants" files have been processed and 1,969 grants have been awarded, for a total amount of 4,447,965.51 euros, 85.37% of the budget; Reintegrating to the Generalitat 479,656.56 euros.
In view of this balance and how the process has been developed, Toni Pérez has stressed that "an efficient and exemplary management" of the 'Parenthesis Grants', and has pointed out that the reason why it has not been 100% of the budget consumed is due to the bases and requirements “dictated and unilaterally approved by the Consell”, which “limited competition” by excluding companies with more than 10 workers and circumscribing aid to certain activities.
In this sense, he recalled that "we already warned of the limitations of these bases" and in fact the Generalitat had to expand the activities that could benefit from these grants. Despite the changes, activities related to the tourism sector and companies with more than 10 workers continued to be excluded.
Therefore, ultimately and in order to reach more beneficiaries, the City Council asked the General Directorate of Local Administration to launch a third call for 'Parenthesis Grants' including more activities in response to "the socioeconomic characteristics of the municipality", petition that was taken care of.
Municipal grants
The mayor has indicated that the City Council has always turned "its efforts" into serving the city's productive fabric and for this "it has articulated new lines of aid with municipal resources, which in many cases have served to complement the 'Parenthesis Grants'" . Thus, only with the aid to the accommodation sector, the discount for garbage receipts and  #BenidormTeEspera and #LuceBenidorm initiatives, aid amounting to about 4.5 million euros has been granted, some of them serving more than 2,700 companies and self-employed workers.
Response to criticism about the management of the ‘Parenthesis Grants’ in Benidorm
After putting all these figures on the table, Toni Pérez has attacked the socialist leaders who "with false data and information" have questioned the management of these aid made by Benidorm City Council. Some criticism that he has attributed to "internal wars of PSOE" and with which some "lack loyalty and institutional respect."
Likewise, he stressed that the question “is not why there are municipalities that we have not spent all the aid, but why the Consell and positions of the socialist party falsify the data and, from that falsehood, they attack the Popular Party only to hide its disastrous management of the pandemic ”.
Toni Pérez has made a direct allusion to the socialist spokesman in Alicante Provincial Council, Toni Francés, whom he has invited “to clean his house before talking about Benidorm”, since while “we have returned 14% of the aid received of the Generalitat for the 'Parenthesis Grants', the mayor of Alcoy, has been able to return 65% of the amount received by the Provincial Council within the framework of  TEN 2021 Grants ”.
Finally, he has indicated that despite the criticisms and attacks, from Benidorm "we are going to continue managing the reality of this city" and "providing the resources that others do not provide to serve our productive fabric and our families."