The plenary session will approve on Monday the ‘ Regulation for 2022 Participatory Budget '

The plenary session next Monday will approve the Regulation for 2022 Participatory Budget that has been provided by the Evaluation Commission of the Neighborhood Council of Benidorm, according to the proposal that will be raised by the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Ana Pellicer.
The Evaluation Commission of the Neighborhood Council approved on the 8th the document, which allows residents "to participate in the co-management of municipal resources, improving and strengthening participatory democracy," explained the mayor.
The Regulation articulates the participation of citizens and the collaboration between them and the political representatives in the preparation and execution of the Participatory Budget, “in which the main neighborhood demands are collected, accommodating municipal investments to those needs as much as possible. ”.
The objective, Pellicer said, is "the direct participation of citizens to establish their main demands and concerns and include them in the annual budget of the municipality, with an amount of at least 5% of the investment budget, prioritizing the most important and making a follow-up of the commitments reached ”.
Pellicer explained that despite the "exceptional and complex" situation derived from the pandemic, the participation of neighbors "is guaranteed through mechanisms adapted to the current circumstances."
In this way, citizens have the capacity to decide on a percentage of the investments that the municipality has to carry out. "The demands should be raised around public investments and should refer to a new investment, or to maintenance and repair works of the current ones" has clarified the holder of Participation.
All those registered in Benidorm over 18 years of age can participate in the Participatory Budget, whose proposals, as many as they wish, must be registered in the General Register of the City Council, by electronic office or by e-mail advicevecinal@benidorm.org until 11:59 p.m. on the 6th from December. The period for receiving proposals will begin the next business day after the final approval of the Regulation for the Participatory Budget in plenary.
Proposals must have a title, description and specify whether they refer to municipal investments or initiatives of another nature. Likewise, its location and territorial scope must be defined, which must be owned by the municipality or by a private entity with a public nature.
One more year, Pellicer specified, the health situation prevents the selection and prioritization process of proposals from being carried out through public assemblies, so “exceptionally, a Prioritization Commission created by the Neighborhood Council itself will be in charge of establish the order of the proposals based on the evaluation criteria included in the Regulation ”.
It is, the councilor concluded, a “very powerful” tool for participatory democracy “that gives citizens a voice and vote when deciding which projects or actions to allocate a very important part of municipal investment to”.