A new year comes with new resolutions and local authorities on the Costa del Sol have been talking about the projects they have on the drawing board for 2009, a year marked by tighter budgets all round.

Benalmádena

In Benalmádena, one of the “priority” schemes for 2009 is to stop the massive open air drinking sessions or ‘botellón’ in the residential areas of Benalmádena Costa. This will go hand in hand with improvements to the image of certain neighbourhoods. The Deputy Mayor responsible for Benalmádena Costa, Francisco Salido, said that last year they had received around 600 letters from residents in the Costa area of the municipality. He added that 2009 was going to be a year full of ambitious projects in order to continue the plans to transform the district

Marbella

The star of 2009 in Marbella is going to be the new PGOU, the first new urban development plan in 20 years, which is due to get its final approval this spring. It is hoped that the new document will help get the town out of the rut it is in by allowing new construction although in the present economic climate the town needs more than a PGOU to get it back on its feet.

Another main objective for this year is to help the tourism industry by cleaning up the image of Marbella around the world. Other projects to take off in Marbella in 2009 include the extension to the Costa del Sol hospital, work on the port to make it suitable for cruise ships and the coastline train to bring the western Costa del Sol closer to Madrid via the AVE. Finally the Town Hall has set about drawing up plans to join the three main promenades - Marbella, San Pedro Alcántara and Puerto Banús - to create 13 kilometres of uninterrupted ‘paseo marítimo’. To achieve this they will have to build two bridges across the mouths of the Río Verde and the Guadaiza and extend some stretches of existing promenade, although much of this work is already under way.

Torremolinos

The Mayor, Pedro Fernández Montes, promised at the end of 2008 to maintain the social benefits provided by the Town Hall despite the economic crisis. During his traditional end of year speech he said that great efforts would be made to keep up the benefits as “we will continue to consider them a priority”. Pensioners and the disabled will continue to be entitled to discounts on the IBI and water and refuse collection rates, promised the Mayor, who added that road tax and the IBI would not be increased and the latter would be subsidised by 50 per cent for new house buyers. Benefits for young people, families with three or more children and the elderly will also remain in place.

Speaking of the financial downturn, Fernández Montes said that the increase in unemployment and fall in tourism was a problem for the town, but that “we must not be pessimistic, although there are difficult months ahead”. He announced that works using the ten million euros from the State Local Investment Fund (the so-called Zapatero Plan) would get under way in March or April..