Benidorm plenary session gives the green light to the agreement for EPSAR to invest 14.5 million in improvement works in hydraulic infrastructure

Benidorm City Council has approved today unanimously the text of the cooperation agreement for financing the improvements and replacement of Benidorm's sanitation and wastewater treatment facilities, for a value of 14,520,000 euros. This means that the Public Entity for Wastewater Sanitation (EPSAR), dependent on the Generalitat, will undertake these improvement actions.

The Councilor for the Water Cycle, José Ramón González de Zárate, recalled that Benidorm pays about 6.3 million a year to the EPSAR, “while the maintenance of the treatment plant costs a little more than four million. That extra money should be invested in treatment plants and pumps; we have been demanding this since 2015.” The councillor regretted that "in the eight years of the Botànic only 83,000 euros were invested", but he congratulated himself that "now, finally, coherence has arrived and 14.5 million euros are going to be invested."

Furthermore, González de Zárate wanted to “congratulate and thank the technicians” and has advocated “getting to work so that the projects are done immediately and that the investment arrives as soon as possible.” He has specified that “many of these actions must be done urgently.”

According to the approved text, the City Council will finance 10% of the cost of the certifications of each action, while the EPSAR will assume the remaining 90%, the council will also obtain the land necessary for the execution of the works, carry out the procedures and obtain the authorizations and licenses that it requires and will issue its conformity and the urban compatibility of the projects before the bidding of the works.

On the other hand, the plenary session has agreed to dismiss the appeal for reconsideration filed by the UTE that managed the ORA Zone "for not finding support in the applicable regulations", an approval that has gone ahead with votes in favour of the government team and the municipal group of Vox and the abstention of the socialist group.

A proposal from the Mayor's Office on the processing status of the ex officio review file approved in the plenary session of December last year regarding the l'Aigüera parking service contract has also been approved by a majority. Thus, it has become clear that the company has been given a hearing, that an opinion has been requested from the Consell Jurídic Consultiu (CJC) and, therefore, that the calculation of the deadline to resolve the procedure and notify the resolution of the ex officio review file until the opinion of the CJC is received. At that same point, the Court of Auditors' order by which the preliminary proceedings were archived was noted.

Spokesperson Lourdes Caselles has clarified that the Court of Auditors, in her order, “points out that there is a different interpretation regarding the type of management contract that should have been tendered; That is to say, Antifraud spoke of a contract while the municipal technicians advocated for another type of contract. From there the ex officio review file begins, but there is nothing illegal.” Caselles has also asked the opposition "not to confuse citizens" because the Anti-Fraud file "has been archived by the Court of Accounts given the complete file."

Likewise, three motions raised to the plenary session by the mayor have been approved, after hearing the Board of Spokespersons. The first of them is related to the commemoration of March 8, International Women's Day; the second for the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of the poet Vicent Andrés Estellés; and the third, to support Spanish farmers and ranchers.

Regarding the motion of March 8, the City Council has agreed to favour the autonomy of people and build a society that is equal in rights and that translates into facts; ending the gender gap that continues to exist in some work environments, both in the quality of jobs and gender representation; continue promoting the work that municipalities carry out in matters of equality; effectively promote the essential role of women in the rural world; continue working on improving the early detection system, as well as providing care to victims of violence against women within the framework of our competencies and; promote the transversality of equality policies in the rest of the management areas of the town councils.

The Councilor for Equality, Ángela Zaragozí, stated in her speech that March 8 is “an important day of vindication in which we all have to go hand in hand.” The motion has been approved with the votes in favour of PP and PSOE and the opposite position of Vox.

Likewise, it has been approved by a majority, with Vox voting against, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Vicente Andrés Estellés by organizing activities to disseminate his connection with Benidorm. A connection that was born with his participation in the first floral games organized in 1944 by the church of Sant Jaume. Estellés spent a few days at Ronda Hotel in the city and even fell in love with a “neighbour with black hair,” who marked him forever.

After that, the poet would refer to Benidorm again in different poems, some texts in which he evoked the landscape of almond trees, vineyards and pines, the work that the sailors did, the port, the dunes of the beach and the way of life he knew.”

Likewise, a motion, the third, in support of farmers and ranchers, was unanimously approved, stating that “a shock plan with immediately applicable measures” would be necessary.

The proposal shows support for the primary sector and "claims its importance in the promotion and sustainability of Benidorm, the Marina Baixa, the province and the Community both from a productive, economic and social point of view, as well as an environmental one."

It also proposes to “request that the Sectoral Conference of Agriculture and Rural Development meet extraordinarily to address the issues that the sector is asking for” and “support the shock plan with the measures demanded by the primary sector to face the crisis of the Spanish agrarian and agri-food system”.

The proposal requests the Government of the Generalitat to adopt the necessary measures to alleviate this situation and urges the Government of Spain to take these measures as soon as possible.

In this regard, the government spokesperson, Lourdes Caselles, considered that “the sector has not been listened to and it suffers from the current European regulations. The CAP leads to more environmental demands with less money, nor has there been a response to the drought and a study would be necessary to modernize irrigation plans. Diesel and fertilizer prices have gone up, there is much more bureaucracy and agricultural insurance has not been adapted to the current reality.” For all this, the councillor has stated that it is "important" that on these issues "we are at her side and the groups reach consensus and unanimity."

Through urgency, the extrajudicial approval of a list of invoices attributable to the financial year 2023 for an amount of 1,184,710.26 euros has been agreed upon by the majority. Aida García Mayor, Councilor for the Treasury, has pointed out that “they are invoices that have the approval of the departments and reviewed by Intervention. With this procedure, which is sometimes unavoidable, we ensure payment to suppliers for services provided and avoid unjust enrichment of the administration."

Finally, in urban planning matters, the plenary session has given the green light by a majority to the beginning of the file to modify the contract for the execution of the works of the N-332 link and its connection with Comunidad Valenciana avenue, as well as the authorization to the optional direction to draft the modified project of the work. The modification will mean an increase in the completion period of the works by six months, until November 15 of this year, and an economic increase of 2.4 million euros.

Lourdes Caselles, Councilor for Urban Planning, explained that the project management requested some technical modifications "that had to comply with supra-municipal reports" which included the need to have "a new collector, a new access in the centre of the new road, a rethinking of existing airlines, or the appearance of new urban services that must be diverted, among others.” All of this has been valued at 2,423,244.79 euros and must be undertaken, the councillor said, “because otherwise, the ministry would not receive the work. "They are technical modifications imposed by supra-municipal organizations that do not affect the economic balance of the contract." A work that she has described as “fundamental” to implement the Partial 3/1 Industrial Plan.