The Benidorm council agrees to pay 350 million euros for the Serra Gelada conviction.
The Benidorm City Council (Alicante) plenary session approved this Tuesday, with votes in favour from the PP and Vox and abstention from the PSPV, the proposed agreement submitted by the city’s mayor, the ‘popular’ Toni Pérez, for the execution of the sentence that condemns the council to compensate Murcia Puchades, with an amount that already amounts to 350 million euros, in compensation for the urban development rights of his property included in the APR-7 sector, in the Serra Gelada …
The council has made it clear that “in both cases,” the value of the land will be based on the market price (fair price), and the valuations will be updated when the City Council makes the offer, “thus adhering to the real and updated value of the square metre.”
Owners Agreement
Lourdes Caselles and the city council’s general secretary talked about the proposed agreement in a plenary session. They said that “the landowners in the APR-7 area have already approved it,” based on a document that all the interested companies registered yesterday and shared at the spokespersons’ meeting. The local government said, “Once this is approved, it will be sent to the court and the agreement will be signed.”
The spokeswoman further stressed that “with compliance with this ruling, the City Council will acquire the land in Serra Gelada” and “this will increase the protected land in Benidorm, which already exceeds 60% of the municipal area.”
PP: “Of general interest”
He also said that the local administration “has always looked after the general interest of Benidorm and compliance with the law” and that “it has done what the technical reports said to do at each time.”
The local government has said that in 2013, “the socialist group voted alone to renew the agreements even though the land had already been declared a natural park in 2005 and the 2012 environmental impact statement (DIA) that extended the protection” of these.
According to Caselles, the PSPV bench has “deceived the citizens” by saying that no negotiations have taken place with the owners “when they know perfectly well, because the municipal technicians have told them on numerous occasions, that it could not be done because that negotiation is prohibited by law.”
“If we have to pay a price today, it’s because the PSOE renewed agreements in 2013, even though one of its councillors, the one in charge of Urban Planning, had previously said no in 2010. But they didn’t care, the spokeswoman said.
Finally, the local government’s spokesperson defended the City Council, saying that it “will be able to fulfil these agreements successfully.” They also said that “when this government team came to power in 2015, the municipal debt was 95 million euros, and by 2022 it was down to zero.”
He said again that following this verdict will be possible “without raising taxes and without cutting municipal services,” because those are “two red lines.” In this regard, he said that “the payment of the ruling can be made following the criteria of the technical experts” and stressed that “the collaboration agreement has been accepted by the property owners.”
PSPV: Tax for tourists
The opposition party, the PSPV, has asked the “president” of the Generalitat, the “popular” Juanfran Pérez Llorca, to “immediately apply the tourist tax” so that “it is not the residents of Benidorm who, with their taxes, pay for the economic damage that the Mayor Toni Pérez has caused” with a “damned roadmap.”
Cristina Escoda, the Socialist spokesperson, said that “since Mr Pérez Llorca has contributed nothing so far, only empty words, he should reopen the debate on the tourist tax in order to implement it and prevent the blame for the mayor’s disastrous management from falling on future generations.” She also said, “I invite him to join me tomorrow in Valencia to raise this vital issue.”
The PSPV said in a statement that the deal “is not a final solution, but a manoeuvre” to “buy time” and “avoid raising taxes more before the 2027 elections.” The message ended with, “This pain that the PP has chosen to extend will cost all Benidorm residents a total of 569 million euros.”
