Benidorm demands that the Government of the nation include the new police station in the General State Budgets of 2025

The plenary session of Benidorm City Council has today unanimously approved to demand that the Government of Spain, specifically the Ministry of the Interior, prioritize in the allocation of the General State Budgets (PGE) of 2025 "the sufficient and necessary items for the tender, award and start in that same year of the construction works of the National Police Station of the city on the land transferred by the City Council for this purpose.

The motion of the Board of Spokespersons recalls that in the 2022 PGE eight million were included in a multi-year investment, but in the subsequent draft of the 2023 accounts the Police Station no longer appeared and was not taken into account in the drafting and approval of the general budgets despite the unanimity of the plenary agreement of October 31, 2022.

The motion indicates that it is “very disappointing, if not outrageous” that an infrastructure “so deserved and expected” has not received the slightest allocation in either the 2023 or 2024 PGE. The current facilities date back to 1972 and were built for a staff of 175 police officers compared to the current more than 300, without counting on summer reinforcements. "It is evident that these facilities have become obsolete and inadequate and cannot house the current staff nor can they serve citizens in optimal conditions to provide the services."

Likewise, the corporation considers that in addition to providing consignment in 2025, the works should begin that same year "because there is no reason not to do so, since the procedures are very advanced and the Benidorm City Council has made many efforts so that the police station "be a reality, giving up the necessary and optimal land according to the Ministry itself and commissioning and presenting the project in 2018 so that said infrastructure is no longer a reality."

On the other hand, in economic matters, a budget modification has been approved to incorporate into the 2024 budget the savings obtained in the fiscal year 2023, estimated at almost 10.8 million. This money will mostly be used to increase social spending and promotion of the local economy. Thus, as detailed by the Councilor for the Treasury, Aida García Mayor, “8.9 million will be for general expenses and the rest for expenses with affected financing.”

The councillor recalled that 1.7 million of this remainder will be incorporated to complement the Provincial Council's subsidy of 645,174 euros and carry out a new consumer bonus campaign #BenidormTeDaMás in December.

“We reinvest in families and in the productive fabric with a proposal that aims to improve municipal action in 2024 in all areas,” said García Mayor, for whom this operation is “an endorsement of the good and efficient economic management that has been carried out.” by this government team" and has indicated that the funds resulting from this savings can be injected into this year's accounts "because the economic situation of the City Council is good. After all, it is working and managing the resources well and now we are redistributing to continue printing the transformation of Benidorm with criteria and improving the daily lives of Benidorm residents.”

In the same economic chapter, an extrajudicial recognition of credit worth 156,248.68 euros corresponding to invoices for ordinary expenses and others presented outside the current financial year has also been approved by the majority, as García Mayor explained. “We are working to ensure that fewer and fewer invoices are approved through this procedure, but it is the appropriate way to do it and it has the approval of the technicians and Intervention” he specified.

With the votes of PP and PSOE, the proposal of the Councilor for Equality, Ángela Zaragozí, has gone ahead to approve the II Municipal Plan for sexual, family and gender diversity of Benidorm 2024-2028, a plan “that is a continuity of the approved in 2016.” “We want to continue improving the prevention of LGTBIphobia and guarantee well-being and safety,” indicated the councillor, who specified that the plan will have “four lines of action, ten objectives and 23 actions to be developed in the coming years.” Zaragozí added that this plan “has nothing to do with politics, but with people's rights” and added that with this second plan “what is intended is to improve what is already working.”

Likewise, the institutional declaration on the occasion of International Pride Day, which is celebrated today, has been approved by a majority. In this statement, the corporation reiterates its “commitment and support to the LGTBI community of the Community. And we do so from the firm commitment of this institution to the defence of freedom, the dignity of the human being and the respect of all people to live and live their sexual orientation as they freely wish.”

The declaration makes it clear that “we must not fall into complacency” because “there is much to do and much to fight for” starting with “remembering, standing in solidarity and raising our voice for all people, from many places in the world.”, where homosexuality is still criminalized, many countries in which people from the LGTBI community are persecuted, threatened and even executed for simply expressing their feelings.”
The declaration also recognizes the work of “many people who, in their capacity or the development of their work, fight to achieve a more just, more humane, more respectful of diversity and more egalitarian world.”

The corporation has also approved by majority the proposal of the Mobility councillor, Francis Muñoz, to suspend the plenary agreement of December 2023 by which it was agreed to terminate the ORA contract after the contentious administrative appeal presented by the UTE awarded the service. Muñoz has stated that “the suspension of said plenary agreement is appropriate out of prudence”, also considering the report issued by the management responsible for the contract.

He has clarified that “we act based on the legal and technical reports.” “That prudence,” he continued, “has led to a ruling from the TSJ proving us right. This joint venture demanded a million euros from us and in the end, we managed to get it to be less than 80,000. "We do not favour any company, but rather the neighbours, which is our responsibility," added Muñoz, who reiterated "loyalty to the neighbours" and the "maximum rigour in the procedures" with which the local government works. “We are awaiting an appeal and we will be prudent because there is no other attitude,” he added. The head of Mobility has also detailed that the current contract “is nine years old and was signed by the PSOE a few days before the elections.”

In the same session, the proposal of the Councilor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer, was unanimously advanced to begin the work that would lead to the recognition as a museum collection of all the movable property already registered in the General Inventory of the Valencian Cultural Heritage for its incorporation into the Valencian Museum System. It was pointed out in the motion that the files that make up the archaeological collection have already been transferred to the system of the Department of Culture and Sports and now "they are in the process" after which they will be considered officially registered. in said general inventory. “Once this process is completed and to be able to show this heritage to the citizens as soon as possible, it is now necessary to request the recognition of all these assets as a museum collection,” indicated the councillor.

Among these pieces, Ana Pellicer has cited some that range from the Neolithic to the 20th century and that come from different donations or archaeological excavations, as recorded in various notes from the Inventory Registry of the Museum of the Town of Benidorm between 1957 and 1967.

The plenary session has also reported on the recent order of the Superior Court of Justice to clarify ruling 343/24 of May 23 regarding the APR-7, which was requested by the City Council, as well as the agreement adopted at the Meeting of Local Government on June 19 that approved the contract for judicial defence in the appeal before the Supreme Court against the ruling. Likewise, the accounting information corresponding to the third and fourth quarters of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 has been reported.