The City Council of Dénia launched last October the participatory process Living environments, a tool to assess the environments - physical, economic and social - where we live, what impact these have on our health and well-being and what effects they have, in specifically, the 14 thematic areas or dimensions evaluated. Yesterday afternoon, at the House of Culture, the session for the return of results and prioritization of improvement proposals was held, led by Ana Ocaña, responsible for the project and in which the Councilor for Health participated, Cristina Morera, Víctor Montiel, technician of Participa Dénia, and some of the people who have taken part in the process and narrated their experience before the public.
The participatory process Environments of life has been carried out through a session open to the citizenship held on the Day of Associations and 13 discussion groups and through three types of questionnaire - group, brief and online. A total of 245 people participated.
Among the dimensions or aspects best valued, the feeling of belonging to the city and its identification with it that the respondents have expressed and the opinion that in Dénia stand out "there is everything" in terms of facilities and services.
Regarding the dimensions that need improvement, citizens cite public transport, traffic and parking, employment and the local economy and housing.
The best valued neighborhoods have been Roques and Les Rotes and the worst rated, Marines and Oest-Campaments.
According to Ana Ocaña, one of the strengths of the project is that the number of participants is representative of the population, in terms of nationality and also by age. The other, he points out, is the "consistency" of the data, that is, that the quantitative ones - the figures - have endorsed the qualitative ones, which was narrated in the groups.
To end yesterday's session, the prioritization of the 58 improvement proposals collected at the meetings was carried out, in which each attendee could choose, by simple vote, the 4 proposals with which, in his opinion, we had to start improving the environment.
The most voted proposals were:
- Organize public transport and adapt it to the specific needs of citizens.
- Increase the social housing public park
-Public transport plan: encourage and encourage travel on foot and the use of public transport.
-Improve Dénia's connection with Alicante and Valencia.
- Promote local consumption
- Greater flexibility in bureaucracy to open businesses
- That the municipality acts as a mediator between owners of abandoned houses and people who need housing.
Finally, Ana Ocaña points out that the comments received about the project "They have been very positive" and people have valued “The opening of the Administration to listen to what people think”.
The Environment of Life action is subsidized by the General Directorate of Public Health and Addictions within the aid to health promotion projects and access to health services and programs in populations living in situations of special vulnerability (DOCV of 18 of September 2019).
