The PSOE criticises the silence of the local government and warns that Benidorm is exposed to multi-million-dollar compensation
The PP has not responded to the beach concessionaire's request for a contract extension due to the pandemic for three years
The Socialist Group has denounced that the PP Government team has still not responded to the claim presented by the company responsible for the management of Benidorm's beaches, R.A. Benidorm S.L, for the period of the pandemic when its contract was suspended by the State of Alarm. Specifically, the concessionaire is requesting an extension of 39 additional months to its contract, signed in 2017 for five years extendable for another five years that must be approved year by year.
Otherwise, the City Council could have to face million-dollar compensation. The socialist councillor in charge of supervising the Beaches department, Laura Rubio, has recalled that the company has been insisting for three years, in its writings to the council, on its intention to take advantage of the RDL 8/2020 to extend the concession period by 15%, a compensation that it has been claiming since 2021 and that “it still has not received any response from the local government”. The councillor has expressed her surprise at this “silence” on the part of Toni Pérez's Government.
Likewise, she has regretted that the local executive also does not respond to the questions that the socialists have been asking on this subject since last January in information commissions, “nor does it pay attention to the different reports from the municipal Intervention department that refer to the need to clarify the status of the original concession contract by the LCSP”.
Rubio has also criticised the councillor for Beaches because she does not explain the delay in some reports, which have supposedly been prepared since December 2022, which would determine how to compensate the concessionaire, and has asked about the possible consequences that this administrative silence will have for the City Council. “We do not know the real reason why they do not speak out, but we fear that in the end, we will have to compensate the company and the municipal coffers will be affected again by the dereliction of duty of the Toni Pérez government”, she stressed.
Finally, the socialist councillor has demanded, on the one hand, that the Popular Party government “stop beating around the bush and dodging the issue” and respond as soon as possible to the concessionaire's request; and, on the other hand, that it monitor and carry out more inspections to ensure that the company complies with the contract specifications after a chaotic summer that has affected the image of Benidorm's beaches.