The Regional Governmet will give Benidorm the premises of the old courts on Avenida de Beniardà to use them for public services

The Valencian Government's Department of Finance is going to transfer the premises that housed the old courts on Avenida Beniardà to Benidorm City Council so that they can be used to house public services after a decade closed. This was announced on Wednesday by the mayor of the city, Toni Pérez, and the Minister for Finance, Ruth Merino, at the end of a meeting they have held in the city to unblock this transfer, the signature of which will be formalised shortly and with which the current Consell is responding to a request that Benidorm City Council has been reiterating to the Generalitat since 2016.

At the meeting, which was also attended by the councillor for General Heritage, Jaime Jesús Pérez, and the general director of Heritage, Toni Woodward, the mayor and Minister specified the main terms of this transfer, which will last for 30 years which will allow the municipality to have a total of eleven premises with a total surface area of ​​1,250 square metres to implement different municipal services in them.

Among them, as Toni Pérez has explained, as soon as the transfer is signed “an analysis of the needs of these buildings will be carried out to adapt them to the use and public services” and he has advanced that the local government is considering moving the Municipal branch and the PROP of Foietes – Colonia Madrid to this space, which are located just in front of the old courts and which “simply because of space, offer greater comfort and more services” than their current premises.

Likewise, the first mayor has indicated that they could also be opened to “the use of the associative and participation movement of our city, as well as to other municipal services, preferably those that the City Council has agreed with the Generalitat” and which are located in other premises, thus grouping all this activity in a single space.

“Finally, the use of these premises on Avenida de Beniardà, which we have been demanding for so many years, will be for Benidorm,” said Pérez, who recalled that “sometimes you knock on a door and what you get is a cold shoulder and other times the door opens before you get to knock and that is what has happened to us with the change of government in the Generalitat”. For this reason, he thanked the Generalitat that the unblocking of this situation will be “materialised in an imminent transfer” and he indicated that “these premises are part of the heritage of all Valencians, of the public heritage, and there is no doubt that the best way for them to be is in public use, being managed by the Benidorm City Council and housing different municipal services and also in collaboration with the Generalitat Valenciana”.

For her part, the Minister of Finance has stressed that this agreement highlights “the commitment to an effective management of the assets of the Generalitat and the search for efficient solutions, to optimise public resources to the maximum for the benefit of the citizens”. In this regard, Ruth Merino has described it as “incomprehensible that almost ten years have passed with these premises closed, with a request by the City Council, reiterated on several occasions, for these buildings to be used and for them to be given a use that benefits all citizens”.

She also explained that “these unused premises are causing economic damage to the accounts of the Generalitat. For this reason, we have considered it appropriate to prioritise the transfer, avoid their abandonment and allow the City Council to make these premises available to citizens”, an agreement that in turn will allow “a saving for the Generalitat of more than 101,000 euros for the IBI corresponding to the thirty years of transfer provided for in the agreement”.

The Minister concluded by saying that “one of the premises of Carlos Mazón's government and what we have been doing since day one is that resources are used optimally. And this agreement that will materialise shortly – she continued – is another demonstration that we are on that path of working and putting citizens at the centre”.