Benidorm will pay tribute to health, police and essential services for their role during the pandemic on the Spanish Constitution Day

Benidorm City Council will recognize on Constitution Day the health services, police and those of an essential nature for "the work carried out during the lock down established by the State of Alarm before the health alert by Covid-19". The plenary session today unanimously endorsed this proposal by the Board of Spokespersons, which was voted in full by the urgent process and which proposes to pay tribute to 27 institutions, organizations, groups and services.

Specifically, this public recognition reaches: Local Police, National Police Corps, Marina Baixa Health Department, IMED Levante Hospital, Benidorm Clinic Hospital, delegation in Benidorm of the Alicante College of Pharmacists, Traffic Detachment of the Civil Guard in Benidorm, Marina Baixa Firefighters Consortium, Special Operations Command based in Rabasa, Third Battalion of Emergency Intervention of the UME, local group of Civil Protection, municipal technical and social services, public employees of the City Council, municipal street cleaning services and dependencies, drinking water service, comprehensive beach management service, Radio Taxi Benidorm, Grupo Avanza, Cáritas Diocesanas de Benidorm, Local Assembly of the Red Cross, Foietes Residence for the elderly, Ciudad Patricia Senior Resort, associations for the elderly –Atentia, Marinasan, Nos Importas, Anneke, Dandelion and Provega-, Visit Benidorm Foundation and Collective Aid Network (RAC).

The mayor, Toni Pérez, has once again highlighted "the exemplary behavior" of the citizens during the lock down and since the health crisis broke out, in compliance with the hygiene-health safety guidelines for prevention and to fight against the spread of the Covid-19.

This recognition and public tribute will be held during the institutional act in commemoration of Constitution Day, which will take place on December 6.

During the session, and unanimously, a budget modification amounting to 1,550,000 euros was approved to address the last two measures promoted by the City Council to "contribute to the survival of the business fabric" of the city, such as "the direct aid ”to establishments in Benidorm linked to the receipt of garbage and the 27th Christmas Window Dressing Contest to“ stimulate commercial activity ”, as detailed by the councillor of the Treasury, Aida García Mayor.

The head of the Treasury has stressed that "finally the City Council is going to allocate more than 3 million euros" to grants and measures aimed at mitigating the effects of Covid-19 on the productive fabric of the city.

Unanimously, the plenary session has approved the Self-Regulation of the Participative Budget 2021 prepared by the Permanent Table of the Neighborhood Council. The head of Citizen Participation, Ana Pellicer, recalled that "since 2016" this document "articulates the participation of citizens and the collaboration between them and political representatives in the preparation and implementation of the Participatory Budget, which includes the main neighborhood demands, accommodating municipal investments and those needs as much as possible ”. It is, therefore, a document that "allows residents of Benidorm to participate in the co-management of municipal resources, thus improving and strengthening participatory democracy."

Prior to voting on this point, the mayor thanked the Neighborhood Council for "in such difficult moments" as those experienced as a result of the pandemic, it gave up the 500,000 euros of the Participatory Budget "to attend to social needs derived from the health crisis."

In urban matters, by majority have ratified "the acts of payment and occupation and availability of land" for the execution of the so-called 'Vial Discotecas', which will link the variant of the N-332 road and Comunidad Valenciana avenue, allowing turn the definitive development of the industrial estate.

As recalled by the Councilor for Urban Planning, Lourdes Caselles, "a very high percentage of the land for the execution of this road has been obtained through mutual agreements with the owners", while in the six cases in which it has not been possible to agree on the expropriations, the corresponding fair price has been recorded.

Caselles has indicated that "once we have the land, we are already working on the revised text of the project for the construction of the road and the roundabout that will give access to the industrial state, since it must be adapted to the signed agreements". These considerations will be transferred to the developer of PP 3/1, which is the one that will have to complete the preparation of such consolidated text so that the City Council "can proceed to tender" the works of both infrastructures.

Likewise, also by majority, the Regulation for the implementation of teleworking in Benidorm City Council has been initially approved. The councillor of Human Resources, Ángela Zaragozí, explained that with these regulations we comply with the decree of the Government of Spain of last October 30, which gave the administrations a period of six months to regulate teleworking. Zaragozí has ​​indicated that " Benidorm City Council is a pioneer" in this matter, since "in less than two months we have a firm and very worked document" in whose preparation "many departments have intervened" and that has been "widely agreed in the General Table of Negotiation with the trade unions ”, their contributions have been included in the document.

The councillor of Human Resources recalled that "since April and May we have been working on these regulations", although it has not been fully raised until now "because we were waiting for the legal provisions of the higher administrations to adapt to them".

Broadly speaking, the Regulation establishes that municipal employees who occupy positions that do not require face-to-face services can request to take advantage of this type of work, excluding temporary personnel in any case. A technical commission "will be in charge of assessing and, where appropriate, authorizing telework requests, giving priority to vulnerable or at-risk personnel, pregnant women, workers with health disorders that affect mobility, personnel with old people and minors in their care, and single-parent families.

The Regulation also includes the obligation of the City Council to provide, to the extent possible, the technological means and connections necessary for the performance of remote work.

Unanimously, the proposal of the Board of Spokespersons regarding the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women has been endorsed, by which the City Council joins "all the voices that cry out for a future in equality" and adheres to the FVMP Declaration. The motion affects, among other issues, "the need to protect against the risk of isolation and containment policies that entail an increase in the levels of domestic, sexual and gender violence"; while ratifying the City Council's commitment "with the Valencian Pact against gender and sexist violence" and with "the State Pact against gender violence", and demands the transfer of the funds allocated for fiscal year 2020 "as a means to guarantee the continuity of the work path started ”.

With the same result, the proposal to "request the Valencian Courts and the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces to modify the current legislation regarding the financing of purification facilities and the management of the Sanitation Canon" so that the local entities can manage these resources, making the necessary investments in these "hydraulic infrastructures that are critical and vital, even more so in a tourist town like Benidorm", as pointed out by the councilor for Water Cycle, José Ramón González de Zárate.

De Zárate has stressed that it is "a motion of justice, because it cannot be that the municipalities, especially those with more than 50,000 inhabitants, make a significant outlay for this purpose and that it does not have an impact on the improvement of their infrastructures" .

The councillor recalled that "the spirit" of the current Sanitation Law is "solidarity" and "making investments" in the infrastructures for the treatment and purification of wastewater through EPSAR. However, "investments are not reaching, not even the smallest municipalities" despite the fact that "in 2018 EPSAR had more than 250 million euros in its coffers." At this point, he explained that “in the last 9 years, Benidorm City Council, through its citizens, has paid EPSAR more than 50 million euros, while the operating and maintenance costs of the Water Treatment Plant of Benidorm Waste Water (WWTP) and its network has totaled 38 million euros ”, which leaves a favorable balance of 12 million euros for the institution. Meanwhile, and despite the agreement signed in 2017 between EPSAR and the municipalities of Benidorm, l’Alfàs del Pi and La Nucia, the management entity has not invested the 3.5 million euros committed. In return, "since 2012 Benidorm City Council has invested more than 5 million euros in these infrastructures".

The councillor has pointed out that "this situation not only affects Benidorm, from where we take the flag of this claim to transfer to the Parlamient and the FVMP".

On the other hand, with the vote of the entire Corporation, the extension of the II Gender Equality Plan and the First Plan for the LGTBI + collective in Benidorm have been agreed until the approval of the new documents. The councillor of both areas, Ángela Zaragozí, explained that “the Covid-19 health crisis has caused alterations in the normal provision of services and the operation of both departments has had to be reprogrammed to attend to the social emergencies derived from the pandemic ”. This circumstance has prevented the evaluation of the actions that had been carried out and makes it necessary to make the execution deadlines of those foreseen more flexible ”, requiring the extension of both plans.

In the same way, and according to the councilor, "at this time, Alicante Provincial Council has launched the development of the Institutional Diagnosis of the situation of equality of LGBTI people in the province." Therefore, "it is convenient to wait for the results of such study that can help us design municipal policies according to the reality of the city", as well as address "issues related to gender identity and expression."

With the same result, the Municipal Plan for Drug Addiction 2021-2024 has been approved. The councilor for Social Welfare, Ángela Llorca, has pointed out that the new document, prepared by the Community Prevention Unit in Addictive Behaviors, seeks to "give greater visibility to the healthy resources of the locality for the youth population and promote the involvement of the community, making it a participant in preventive actions ”.

Also at the proposal of the councillor of Social Welfare, the entire plenary session has approved the Municipal Regulation of the Mediation Service that will serve to "implement, develop and promote a local legal framework" that complements the "extrajudicial and intrajudicial" mediation procedures that are developed in the city. Llorca recalled that mediation "is a method to resolve conflicts, based on cooperation" and with which "it helps the parties to find a lasting and acceptable agreement for both."

Unanimously, the Corporation has requested the Generalitat Valenciana to convey Public Congratulations to Local Police officers Juan Gabriel Casagrande and Pedro Antonio Martínez for an intervention on October 20, in which they proceeded to arrest a citizen who had allegedly stolen by force several jewels from an elderly person, causing injuries, as reported by the Councilor for Citizen Security, Lorenzo Martínez.

Likewise, by majority has approved an extrajudicial recognition of credit for the amount of 64,087.69 euros, corresponding to the cost of transporting sports entities during the processing period of the new contract for this service.

In the same session, the state of implementation of the 2020 budget at the end of the third four-month period of the year, and the decree of resolution of the nomination of the "Mitja Llegua" road was reported.

Motions of municipal political groups

By majority, the proposal of the Municipal Group of the Popular Party against the so-called Celaá Education Law has prevailed. The motion urges the Government of Spain "to return to the Constitutional Pact in educational matters and to respect the constitutional doctrine in its different sentences that guarantee the right of families to choose the educational model and the center where their children can go to school." Among the proposals included in the motion is "to adopt the appropriate measures so that the teaching of the Spanish language and the co-official languages ​​is not a source of discrimination in the exercise of the right to education"; as well as "guaranteeing the existence and free of charge of special education centers both in the public and private network as important elements of a specialized and plural educational model that allows families to choose the most appropriate option for their interests and needs."

Likewise, it proposes to support “the unconstitutionality appeal announced by the Popular Party against” such educational law to “guarantee that rights included in our Constitution such as freedom of choice or the right to receive education in Spanish, the official language of Spain, are not violated. ”.