Benidorm will award the urban gardens of Italia street in a public draw next Thursday
The City Hall has ruled out 22 applicants for not meeting the requirements or for having waived their request
Benidorm City Hall will hold a public raffle and open to citizens to award the ecological urban gardens of Italia street. The Commission of Urban Gardens has decided to use this procedure at the proposal of the councilor for the Environment, José Ramón González de Zárate. The draw will take place next Thursday, March 22, at 12:00 in the Assembly Hall of the City Council.
De Zárate said that "we have chosen this formula to allocate the urban gardens because we believe it is the most transparent, allowing all applicants to be present and follow the draw live." He also clarified that 21 plots will be drawn, since one has been assigned directly to the only association of neighbors that had submitted to the contest: Els Tolls. "The association is going to make a collective and regulated use of orchards, which makes it possible for this first phase of the urban gardens to reach as many people as possible," he said.
In addition to determining the formula for the allocation of orchards, the Monitoring Commission has also assessed all the requests that have been submitted to check which applicants were eligible to be awarded one of these plots.
Thus, of the 77 applications received - not counting the association of residents of Els Tolls - 55 applicants will enter the draw for next Thursday. Of these, two have functional diversity; 15 are unemployed; and the rest are retired or pensioners. The remaining 22 applicants have been dismissed for failing to meet the requirements, for having waived their request, or for failing to provide the documentation required.
Among the 56 candidates, the 21 bidders and nine alternates will be chosen. These substitutes will be able to access an orchard in the event that any of the winners renounces their use or it is withdrawn for not complying with the obligations contained in the agreement approved by the City.
The councilman of Environment recalled that these orchards will be cultivated for "self-consumption, not for sale" and "following the model of organic farming." Failure to respect either of these conditions, "breaching the rules of civic conduct" or "leaving the garden without working for more than three months" will entail "termination" of the assignment. Moreover, it is forbidden the installation of booths, kiosks, shades, chairs, benches or any other type of furniture; and once the adjudication is finished the user must return the plot in perfect condition.
De Zárate has influenced that these 22 plots of Italia street are part of a first phase of urban gardens, since the idea of the City Council is to create more in different districts of the city in 2017 and in the following years. These future urban gardens will follow the same model as those in Italia street: cultivated plots in a park with play areas for children and adults.