The PSOE considers it impossible to take control of tourist apartments if the number of inspectors is not increased

The socialist municipal group has warned that Benidorm City Council will have to increase the number of municipal inspectors when it assumes the powers to inspect and sanction tourist homes that do not comply with regional regulations. The deputy spokesman, Sergi Castillo, has recalled that the City Council requested authorization from the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism to be able to initiate, instruct and resolve sanctioning procedures for minor, serious and very serious infractions about the new Tourist Housing Law.

Castillo has stressed that if Benidorm wants to exercise effective control over those activities that are carried out without authorization and pursue the irregularities that are committed, "we have no choice but to increase the personnel assigned to inspection because with the current one, we are not able to do it." He has thus stressed that the request for the transfer of powers made by the government of Toni Pérez “seems more like a gesture for show, looking for a headline, than a real desire to put a stop to the proliferation of illegal accommodation and exercise greater control over holiday apartments”.

Departments collapsed

The socialist councillor has pointed out that assuming these inspection functions can lead even further to the collapse of different municipal departments due to the disastrous management of the human resources policy that the Popular Party government is carrying out. “We have seen the serious problems that the city council is having with the reports of urban compatibility for this type of tourist housing with files that take more than a year to resolve, and now they want to deal with these new powers with the same staff and the same inspectors”, he stressed.

Finally, Castillo has asked the local government to initiate the necessary procedures and processes to increase the number of municipal inspectors to be able to take on with “guarantees” the inspection tasks and the sanctioning procedures for tourist accommodations that do not comply with regional regulations.