Benitatxell parking is not a concern. This municipality of just 5.000 inhabitants has ten free public parking lots in the urban center that serve residents. Half of them have been created in the last two years to, according to the council, anticipate future needs and ensure a basic service.
As the mayor has stated, Miguel Ángel García, “in the medium term, we hope to transform our municipality into a pedestrian friendly, beautiful and green place with different urban actions and construction projects. Being aware of these future works, which in some cases will occupy land that is now a parking lot, such as at the school, a forecast has been made so that there is no lack of parking spaces”.
Where are the public car parks located in Benitatxell
Thus, five new ones have been added to the Capelletes car parks (which have been completely renovated recently), Pou Street, Molls Street, Mercat, Cementerio and the old ones for the schools: the new one for the school, the one on Avenida de València, that of Calle dels Furs, that of the football field and a future that will be created on the entrance road to the municipality by Xàbia when the access roundabout to Cumbre del Sol is enabled.
In most cases, the land for these car parks belongs to private owners with whom the City Council has renewed or made new contracts. In the case of the old car parks, stability has been given to the contracts by extending the agreements to a minimum of between 7 and 10 years. This is because until now, as explained by García, the City Council had been making use of these lands with renewable one-year contracts, which made this basic service unstable. “If the owner had considered that he no longer wanted or was not interested in continuing to rent, the municipality could have been left without an important parking lot from one day to the next. And we wanted to avoid that and give the car parks solidity and permanence.”
Ehe City Council had been paying an average of 0,6 euros per square meter on urban land for the car parks already inherited from the previous government, which is why this price has been maintained for all contracts, both old and new. In this way, all owners are paid the same amount per m2 and comparative grievances are avoided.
Although it is true that the increase in parking bags has increased the monthly costs allocated for this purpose, this increase has been offset by the increase in income through other channels, such as the collection of an extra 227.000 euros in inspections of the tax on new construction (ICIO), the agreement with the Lady Elizabeth school to pay 458.814 euros for the access roundabout to Cumbre del Sol or other rentals of municipal assets.
Likewise, continuing with future forecasts, the government is awaiting the resolution of the request for a subsidy from the DUS 5.000 Program of European funds valued at around 850.000 euros to finance an action whose objective is to reform and adapt six of the car parks.
