The City Council has announced that Benalmádena Costa will remain as it is until the opinion of the people of Benalmádena is known through the citizen consultation that is expected to be developed regarding what city project they want for this enclave. Citizen consultation thatalready has a positive report by the secretary of the City Council, which attests that “the processing carried out is in accordance with the determinations of the Citizen Participation Law”. The call cannot be held at this time because, as the mayor, Víctor Navas, stressed in the last plenary session, “the call for the Andalusian elections will be postponed”. This issue is also included in the law, as well as the deadlines in this type of case.
In the municipal plenary in which the green light was given to the questions that this consultation will include, one of the claims of the opposition parties was precisely the need to know the assessment of the municipal secretary. In fact, the PP, as it literally appears on its official website, stated that “holding a popular consultationat this time could be breaching different laws, so from the blue formation they are going to vote ‘no’ to said consultation, while the pertinent report from the secretary is going to be required”.
The highly demanded report has already arrived and states that the referendum is in accordance with current regulations for such matters and that “the corresponding authorization has been requested from the Government Subdelegation”, as established by the procedure.
The secretary of the City Council concludes that “the processing carried out is in accordance with the determinations of the Citizen Participation Law”, so it will be necessary to wait for its call to receive the approvals of the competent administrations, as determined in the procedure. regulated by law in Andalusia for popular consultations, which are not binding.
In the words of the mayor, Víctor Navas, “in the search for the maximum possible consensus, so that the majority is comfortable with the city model that we want for Benalmádena Costa, we wanted to open a sale of participation for the debate, in which the citizen is provided with various development alternatives for the coastal façade, and thus can choose the one they consider the shortest for our municipality”.
The first mayor defends taking advantage of the millionaire European funds of the Edusi to give a comprehensive change to the Coast, a project that has been around for a long time and that seems, according to the minutes of the plenary sessions of the City Council, that years ago it did have the approval of all the municipal corporation.
However, Navas stressed that “we understand that various neighborhood groups do not agree with the model proposed for Benalmádena Costa, and we are willing to listen to them: we have always defended that a government team cannot manage with its back to the citizens”.
The project includes the reduction of lanes for general traffic in favor of bus and new mobility vehicles, an issue that has been the subject of controversy.
Regarding the works planned in this sense in the area, Navas confirmed that “meanwhile -in reference to the popular consultation-, we are not going to carry out any action on the avenue, and the traffic in the area has returned to its previous state, although we continue to work in the Contracting Area on the various projects of the Strategy of Integrated Sustainable Urban Development (Edusi), but we will not start any work before the citizens vote in the consultation”.
Although the popular consultation, according to the law, is not binding, Navas has announced that “Based on the results, we are willing and committed to doing what the citizens ask of us because we do not govern with our backs to the citizens: if a sufficient, large and representative number of neighbors show their rejection of this city project, we will look for a way so that it can be adapted to what the majority prefers in order to achieve the consensus of all sectors involved”.
For his part, the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Pablo Centella, has once again emphasized “as we publicly announced in plenary, the citizen consultation complies with all the legal and technical guarantees, as stated by the secretary of the City Council in his report: based on Law 7/2007 on Citizen Participation of Andalusia, which regulates popular consultations, both the proposal and the processing fits right”.
“With this citizen consultation, the Government team is committed to making it as easy as possible for the majority of Benalmadenses to express their opinion on the project, making public voting points available to help people who have difficulties voting telematics from your home”, has valued the councilor.
“With this citizen consultation, the Government team is committed to making it as easy as possible for the majority of benalmadenses to express their opinion on the project, making public voting points available to help people who have difficulties voting telematics from your home”, has valued the councilor.
- Do you want to know the differences between popular consultation and referendum?: HERE
