- ‘ Historically we have not been applying the fairness and effectiveness of taxation that was due, and therefore we have considered applying this suspension for everyone, both for those who already pay and for those who will pay in the future, in order to put everything in order’.
Last Friday, the corporation of El Poble Nou de Benitatxell unanimously approved in an extraordinary plenary session (with 7 votes from Més Benitatxell and 2 from REDcv) the modification of the ordinance regulating the fee for vehicle entry, parking and regulated parking, which was already modernised last March. The most substantial modification now is the reduction of the fee from 90 to 60 euros for garages of one to five vehicles in the town centre, and from 120 to 60 euros for garages or spaces of one to five vehicles in urbanisations.
In the modification of last March, the ordinance was already clearly defining which elements constitute ‘vados’ (no parking) in order to avoid comparative grievances between the town centre and the urbanisations. The Council is now carrying out a field study to draw up a detailed census of all the fords in the municipality.
As explained by the mayor, Miguel Ángel García (Més Benitatxell), this variation responds to the fact that the street work being carried out to carry out the census of ‘vados’ has revealed more than was initially expected – the current work estimates the existence of between 2,000 and 2,500 ‘vados’ -, so it has been decided to update the rate, which is currently one of the lowest in La Marina Alta region. In addition, it has been decided to apply the rate fairly and that there should be no price differences between the town centre and the urbanisations.
But, undoubtedly, the most significant aspect of this point is the suspension of the collection of the fee for the next three years. ‘We suggest the temporary suspension of the ordinance and, therefore, its collection, for two important reasons. The first is that the census has not been completed in order to start applying it correctly. We are going to need time, as the census has to be finished, each owner has to be notified one by one, we have to wait for a response as to whether they want to use it or not, leave the corresponding time for allegations, etc.’, García explained.
In addition, the mayor commented, the second reason is ‘that this is a way of compensating those homes that have been paying the “vado” religiously. Historically, the tax has not been applied as fairly and efficiently as it should have been, and for this reason we have considered applying this suspension for everyone, both for those who were already paying and for those who will pay in the future, in order to put everything in order’.
At the moment this tax is only being paid in the town centre, and of all those who should be paying it, only 70 homes are paying it. Therefore, the ordinance is not being applied correctly, which defines as a ‘ford’ all those accesses to homes, garages or garages on urban land that make use of the public road to access their vehicle.