Antonio Machado Avenue will once again have four lanes, two in each direction, for the circulation of road traffic. And it is that, in May, the one-year period estimated by the City Council for the pilot test carried out in this enclave comes to an end, consisting of lane reduction to monitor the behavior of traffic and to be able to determine measures that contribute to improving its fluidity with a view to the implementation of the global remodeling project of this nerve center of tourism in Benalmádena, included in the Edusi and financed mainly by European funds.
In addition, the Consistory is going to carry out a citizen consultation to question the people of Benalmadena about which urban model they prefer for Benalmádena Costa. According to the mayor of Citizen Participation, Pablo Centella, the consultation -which will have nocharacter binding– will be activated throughout May through the institutional telematic channel, “It will be technically impeccable, and will offer the maximum guarantees so that the resident who is registered and of legal age can exercise their right to participate in it.” This new initiative will be added to the sectoral tables, assemblies and various meetings launched with different groups in the municipality.
Regarding the organization of traffic in Benalmádena Costa, throughout today the green pivots that delimited the reorganization of the lanes in the area will be removed for, in the words of the mayor, Víctor Navas, “provide permeability again to Antonio Machado Avenue while we seek the opinion of citizens on the city model they prefer for the coast.”
The mayor, Víctor Navas; accompanied by the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Pablo Centella; and the Councilor for Mobility, Javier Marín, have offered a press conference this morning in which they have made a detailed presentation of the government decisions and previous administrative steps that have given rise to the current approach for the development and improvement of the coastal strip .
- In 2013, thefirst mobility studywas launched to assess the traffic situation on Antonio Machado Avenue, the main communication artery in Benalmádena Costa.
- November 17 2014, being mayor of Benalmádena Paloma García Gálvez, the decree was signed through which the drafting of the preliminary projects for the modernization and revitalization of Antonio Machado Avenue began, thus marking the criteria and objectives that were sought with the remodeling project.
- In the 2015, according to Navas, “when we arrived at the Mayor’s Office, we retrieved these documents and decided to enrich them with the participation and proposals of social agents and municipal technicians,developing various sectoral tables for the drafting of a strategic plan to present in the EU and thus obtain funds that would allow us to undertake an action of such magnitude” .
- In 2017, the aforementioned strategic plan was unanimously tested in plenary session by all the political forces, which already included the actions that had to be carried out for the transformation and improvement of Benalmádena Costa, “the nucleus that had received the least municipal investment during the last decades”.
- In 2018 the EU approved the strategic plan for the coast, obtaining 10 million euros of European funds for the realization of the Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy (Edusi) that would promote the modernization and revitalization of the coastal façade, “as the most important nucleus of the municipality for being the one in which the tourist activity is mainly concentrated, our main industry and motor job and wealth creation.
- In the last three years, “various expressions of interest, action plans, technical data collection and sectoral studies have been developed, with the added difficulty of the start of the pandemic”, explained the mayor, who concluded that in May 2021, “we decided to launch a a one-year pilot test to obtain the data and experience that would allow us to undertake the remodeling of Antonio Machado Avenue safely and with guarantees”.
End of trial period
At the gates of the start of May 2022, the end of the one-year trial period, “we are ready to start the remodeling worksof the avenue, but during the trial period various neighborhood groups have questioned the viability of the action, and since business and commercial fabric of the city we have not found the firm support required by the greater economic investment projected for Benalmádena Costa”, the mayor clarified.
The mayor stressed that “I am convinced that It is a work that will lead to a great leap in quality for Benalmádena as a tourist destination, and would place us at the forefront within the Costa del Sol, with a sustainable urban development project that would contribute to curbing climate change, in addition to improving the quality of life of citizens”.
“But we have always governed facing the neighbors of Benalmádena: as mayor I would never try to make decisions behind the back of the public”, indicated Navas, who also recalled that Benalmádena has obtained 13 million euros in European funds to carry out these actions, and “as mayor I do not see myself in a position to return to Europe that important economic endowment to undertake investments”.
Consultation term
The mayor has announced thatI want to face this necessary transformation and improvement for Benalmádena Costa, but counting on the participation of all citizens of Benalmádena, and therefore we are going to carry out a citizenconsultation so that neighbors decide how they want the urban model for the coast to be, within the various alternatives considered in recent months”.
In this way, today the green pivots that delimited the new organization of the lanes are being removed to, in the words of the mayor, “provide permeability again to Antonio Machado Avenue while we seek the opinion of the publicon the model of city for the coast”.
The mayor has estimated that the citizen consultation, which will not be mandatory or binding, may be held before the end of May, and all residents of legal age registered in the municipality may participate in it. “We want the citizens themselves to decide how they want Benalmádena Costa to be:we are going to open the debate to participation, and we will make the final decision once we know the opinion of the citizens”, Navas pointed out.
“In Benalmádena, today, terms so common in previous periods such as embezzlement, waste, speculation or corruption have disappeared from the political debate: today the debate on the city model prevails in the municipality”, the mayor highlighted. .
“Now we want to rely again on citizen participation, as we already did in the preparation of the strategic plan through sectoral tables, to achieve the greatest possible consensus,” he stressed.
According to Navas, “fighting against climate change means changing our mobility, consumption and behavior habits, we have to be clear about what each one of us is willing to contribute, both collectively and individually: what we do in Benalmádena is not going to save us definitively, but it will contribute to reversing the effects of this phenomenon and leaving a better world for our children and grandchildren”.
Citizen participation
The Councilor for Citizen Participation, Pablo Centella, has highlighted that “the project for the transformation and improvement of Benalmádena Costa was born from a participatory process and, after the pilot period of tests, it has given rise to debate and controversy between neighbors and the business community. ”.
The councilor recalled that the entire project “was born to strengthen the tourist and economic development of Benalmádena”, so that “the pilot test is over, and as a Government in which the opinion and participation of the people is an essential element, we need to know if a large part of the citizenry agrees with our urban model for the Benalmádena coast”.
“We are convinced that this is the best city model for Benalmádena Costa, but our leadership is horizontal, focused on active listening and, in the face of crucial issues for the future of the city, we consider it necessary to press the opinion of Benalmadenses” , Centella has pointed out.
The person in charge of Citizen Participation has guaranteed that the entire consultation procedure, which will be carried out electronically, “will be technically impeccable, and will offer the maximum guarantees so that the resident registered and of legal age can exercise their right to participate in it”.
“Although it will not be binding, the set of political forces will have to be very attentive to what the citizens say”, Centella concluded.
Mobility
From the Mobility Area, and by the Local Police, according to his councilor,all the necessary tests and measurements have already been carried out throughout this year, “in order to know the real needs of our roads and guarantee the accessibility and mobility of people and vehicles, and now extrapolate the conclusions obtained from this experience to the rest of the public.”
“Now the time has come, with the experience accumulated throughout this year, for us all to decide where we want to go in terms of urban development on the coast”, he pointed out.
“If we want to continue along the line of development that the main European cities have opted for, we must continue to move towards reducing road traffic on the streets to provide more space for pedestrians“, the councilor has assessed.
