Benidorm reinforces cleaning, lifeguard and security services on the beaches for the start of the high season

Starting tomorrow, Saturday, Benidorm City Council will expand the cleaning, lifeguard and security services on the beaches to mark the start of the high season for which a special operation has been designed that will last until 30 September. This has been advanced by the Councilor for Beaches and Environment, Mónica Gómez, who explained that "although our beaches are one of the few on the entire Spanish coast that maintain these services during the twelve months of the year, in the summer they increase significantly both in staff as well as in technical and material means due to the high influx of tourists.”

Mónica Gómez has detailed that in the case of rescue and first aid, the service will expand its hours so that during June it will be operational from 10 in the morning and seven in the afternoon, while in July, August and September it will operate between 9 in the morning and eight in the afternoon.

According to the mayor, it will be made up of a total of 44 people per day, who are distributed as follows: nine lifeguards on Levante Beach and nine on Poniente Beach; two lifeguards on Mal Pas Beach; as well as a lifeguard on Cala del Ti Ximo and another in Cala de l'Almadrava. They are joined by five nurses at the aid stations; a beach chief and a coordinator, who will reinforce the surveillance work on land and a rescue boat, with a skipper and a rescuer, who will do it from the sea. Likewise, there will also be four other ambulance personnel.

In addition to all this staff, there will also be nine lifeguards to provide service at the three accessible beach points: three in Levante, three in Elche Park and another three in La Cala, spaces that will also expand. It is scheduled from June 1 to September 30 to facilitate bathing for people with mobility problems between 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. As far as technical and material means are concerned, in addition to everything mentioned, the number of operational aid stations increased to five, which are distributed along the entire coast, and the ambulances are also reinforced, going from two to four in service.

As far as security is concerned, Benidorm City Council will also reinforce the police presence on the beaches and their surroundings during the indicated dates. Not in vain, in addition to the 30 agents that make up the Beach Section of the Local Police, there will be a 30% reinforcement of troops in each of the shifts, as indicated by the mayor of Citizen Security, Jesús Carrobles. In addition, the Local Police boat will be operational, thus complementing that of the concessionaire company for the comprehensive management of the beaches, while there will always be reinforcement with patrol cars in Levante and Poniente. Added to all this will be the reinforcements that the National Police Corps also has planned during the summer campaign.

Finally, about the cleaning service, the Councilor for Beaches has stated that the human resources will be increased until reaching at least 24 people. Thus, there will be two manual cleaning shifts on the three beaches: one in the morning, from 6:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and another at night, from 8:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., with a total of eight and 16 workers, respectively. Added to this device is mechanical cleaning with tractors and sieves: on the shore, between 3 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.; and in the rest of the sandy areas, between 10:30 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Likewise, during the high season, they clean the sand and from the sea using the pelican boat, also equipped with its skipper.

Improvements

Finally, Mónica Gómez recalled that since the beginning of the year, “taking advantage of the moments of lower influx of people to the beaches, numerous events have been held in different spaces.” Among them, she recalled that the City Council has already improved the accessible beach points and carried out intensive cleaning of the sand, as well as many other actions to improve the state and image of our coastline.

Likewise, in recent weeks the City Council has also made improvements to the pavement of the Levante Biblioplaya, located at the confluence of Madrid and Europa avenues, where the most deteriorated parts of the platform have been replaced due to the intensive use of the facilities. The councillor recalled that these replacement works "have been carried out by municipal services and have been completed just before the start of the high season, the time of greatest influx of users." Thus, this service came into operation again yesterday, Thursday, while the two beach libraries in Poniente will do so tomorrow, June 1. In all three cases, the service will work from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.