Citizens can make their contributions until 24 September
The Neighborhood Council has started the process of collecting proposals for the preparation of the Participatory Budget 2017, as announced by the councillor for Citizenship Participation, Mara Jesús Pinto, and the first and second vice presidents of the body, Fernando Montes and Christian Corraini. Citizens or associations interested may submit their proposals for registration in administrative extensions or in the City Council from Monday until September 24. Montes explained that the registration of proposals is one of the improvements that have been introduced this year in the regulations of the Participatory Budget, and which is intended to give "greater assurance to citizens". Furthermore, to streamline the entire process and "make more agile participation and decision, the number of commission members in the Participatory Budget have been reduced and changes will be introduced in the Assembly. This Assembly that must vote all citizen proposals and will be held "in the first half of October." The councillor of Participation encouraged citizens to "participate and make their proposals to have the Benidorm we all want", and stressed that such contributions are taken into account in the municipal budget as it has already been seen in this exercise, in which they have served an important part of the requests made by the Neighborhood Council. Pinto said that the government's commitment to citizen participation has been seen with the launch of the first participatory budgets and, above all, in how these neighborhood proposals have been reflected in the 2016 budget." "In fact, she added, 5% of the investment budget that is marked in the regulation has been exceeded", to be allocated to proposals suggested by the Neighborhood Council, with performances like Asphalt Plan, or the Accessibility Plan, installing swings in the park of Elche and LAigüera. In these actions could be added, if necessary, the works in several streets of the Old Town proposed by the local government. The vice president of the Neighborhood Council stressed that the experience in 2016 has been "a success" because the initial amount that would be allocated to the Participatory Budget 90 000 euros, has increased up to 125,000 euros, and have been dedicated essentially "to mobility and accessibility" which was the most voted proposal by neighbors. Montes recalled that the Asphalt Plan "exhausted the budget", despite which, after "negotiations with the City Council" have finally had a place in investments in 2016 "more than ten proposals of the Neighborhood Council".
