Yesterday, August 9, the voting phase of the Participatory Budgets 2021 closed, with 15 finalist projects selected, assessing the viability and need, from among the 64 submitted by the public. An edition in which, despite having the highest budget in history, turnout has plummeted, with only 64 proposals presented compared to the 232 of the previous edition and, as we now know, with only 624 votes, a figure well below the 3.646 in 2019.
The winning proposal, with 151 votes out of the total of 624 collected, is "Lighting in 14 light points in the Montgó neighborhood", a proposal that seeks to improve safety for pedestrians and vehicles in this area of the city.
By number of votes, the following projects that have received the most acceptance from the public are: "Children's zip lines in the Bosc de Diana" (150 votes) and "Renovation of the Paseo de la Marineta Cassiana"(82 votes).
They complete the list:
4- Change of the streetlights on the streets of Patricio Ferrándiz and Sagunto for other LED technology: 41 votes
5- Burying the garbage containers in the historic center
6- Renovation of the sidewalks of Plaça de Jaume I: 38 votes
7- Renovation of sidewalks in the streets of Marines, Hort, Albert Sentí, Escullera and Dr. Fleming, from the Baix la Mar neighborhood: 33 votes
8- Change of CV-725 luminaires for other LED technology: 25 votes
9- Recover the sidewalk of C / Rap de Les Marines: 20 votes
10- Dog park in Les Marines: 16 votes
11- Asphalting the Saladar road: 12 votes
12- Lighting of the main facade of the Town Hall with led technology: 8 votes
13- Replacement of luminaires in Nou, Sant Antoni and Desemparats streets with other LED technology: 7 votes
14- Shelters at the bus stops of the La Alberca urbanization, de les Marines: 4 votes
15- Renovation of sidewalks in Jorge Juan Square: 1 vote
Citizen proposals were submitted between April 8 and May 31, only electronically on the website http://participadenia.es/, due to the exceptional situation derived from the health crisis. Voting has also been done exclusively through the web.
This year, as a novelty, the presentation of proposals by neighborhood was suppressed, since it has been proven that requests for improvements by areas of the city are better channeled through monthly neighborhood meetings. So in this edition all the projects correspond to city projects.
From this list ordered by number of votes, actions will be carried out until the total budget allocated for 2021 is completed, which amounts to € 300.000. That is, not just one project will be executed, but as many as the budget allows. In this fourth edition of the Participatory Budgets, the budget item has been increased by € 50.000.
