The Consistory allocates 133,550 euros to the works to replace the drinking water network and 6,957 euros to the study for the implementation of energy communities in the town.
Benejúzar.
The Benejúzar Town Council has approved the award of two contracts valued at 140,508 euros. The first of these, as indicated by the Mayor and head of the Department of Finance, Vicente Cases, allocates 133,550 euros to the start of the third phase of the works to replace the drinking water network in Zone 8, as well as the general network in Avenida de Las Canteras. With this action, consisting of replacing the pipes with more suitable materials and replacing the house connections, “we are solving a recurring problem in this area of the municipality, which suffers numerous occasional breaks and frequent supply cuts caused by expansion and settlement of the ground due to the state of these pipes,” said Cases.
The second of the approved contracts is dedicated to the drafting of a study for the development and implementation of the system of energy communities in Benejúzar. In this way, “we will have a plan to develop in our municipality these societies, composed of groups of people, entities or companies associated with each other to produce, distribute or consume energy in a collaborative and sustainable way,” said the mayor. Cases assured that this system “will serve to promote the use of renewable energies and the improvement of energy efficiency, as well as serving for their efficient and egalitarian use”. The approval of this award has been made through a minor contract amounting to 6,957 euros.
Approval of seven tenders for works
The Mayor of Benejúzar has also pointed out that the Council has initiated procedures for the tendering of seven actions “very necessary and aimed at improving spaces in the municipality, some of them charged to the municipal coffers. This is the case of the installation of seven outdoor hydrant points in different parts of the town centre and surrounding areas, with a budget of 15,245 euros, and which aims to provide an adequate and immediate water supply for the fire brigade in the event of fire. Likewise, and also charged to the municipal budget, the Town Hall has planned the installation of a bus shelter at the IES Benejúzar bus stop. An action that has a budget of 9,075 euros and that “will allow school transport users can be sheltered from adverse weather conditions,” said Cases.
The City Council has also contemplated the tendering of contracts of varying amounts, which will be financed with the help of various institutional subsidies. These include the replacement of conventional lighting with LED bulbs and the implementation of a remote management system for the entire town centre, with the exception of Zone 8, where they have already been modified, all within the framework of the Planifica 2020-2023 grants from the Alicante Provincial Council. The mayor pointed out the advantages of this change, as this type of bulb “offers a higher quality of light with greater sustainability and savings in billing, as well as more efficient management”. This action is budgeted at 460,489 euros, which joins the 34,999 euros that will go towards the installation of solar LED luminaires on the cemetery and La Pilarica roads.
Another of the works to be put out to tender, “and which is part of our intention to create a more sustainable and environmentally friendly municipality”, said Cases, is the installation of new self-consumption photovoltaic panels in municipal buildings such as the sports pavilion, the auditorium, the CEIP Antonio Sequeros school and the swimming pool, as well as increasing the existing ones in the medical clinic and the Town Hall itself. The base tender budget is 293,239 euros, also subsidised by the Alicante Provincial Council’s Planifica 2020-2023.
The local government has included in these tenders the improvement of public spaces to encourage the use of bicycles and other sustainable transport. To this end, “we are going to build a cycle lane and a pedestrian path along the perimeter of the municipality, which will join the existing route that connects the town centre with the high school, the sports facilities and the mountain,” said the mayor. These works also have a grant from the Generalitat Valenciana for actions aimed at promoting sustainable urban mobility included in the Vega Renhace Plan, with a base budget of 171,033 euros.
The Town Hall has also put out to tender the repair work on the two tennis courts in the sports facilities in the La Pilarica area, which at the moment “are not in optimal conditions for use by private users or for the students of the municipal tennis school, so we are going to undertake improvements to the playing surface and the renovation of the marking lines,” said the mayor. This action, subsidised by the Provincial Council of Alicante and framed in the Plan + Sport, has a base budget of 56,582 euros. The mayor has positively valued these initiatives, “which seek to renovate the environment of the municipality in a responsible and efficient manner”, and added that “we continue to fulfil our commitment to improve the lives of the residents of our town, applying for the necessary subsidies and through a management based on sustainability and common sense”.