Budget bridges Calpe's gap
ONLY Dénia and Calpe will benefit from the government's 2015 budget albeit in a small way.
In the case of Calpe, the public works ministry will carry out a project to build a pedestrian bridge over the N-332 to give people direct access to the town's train station and the urbanisations at the foot of Serra d'Oltá.
The new bridge will be equipped with two lifts so that elderly and disabled people can use it with ease.
The cost of the project has been put at €751,000 and mayor César Sánchez said the local government is fulfilling its promise to residents and that he was very relieved that in the future nobody will have to risk their lives trying to cross the busy N-332.
In Dénia, the government has allocated €700,000 to be used to reform the historic house on Calle Sant Josep in the old town centre.
Once finished the building will be used for cultural purposes.
While both Calpe and Dénia benefit from a small slice of the 2015 budget, state funding for the Benissa bypass project has been shelved until at least 2018.
The council is banking on the success of the government's plan to use the so-called German method, which sees the company carrying out a project meet the cost, then once it is finished the government pays up. News Staff Reporter BENIDORM council has initiated an express facelift project in areas such as the castle and around the port ahead of the arrival of the cruise ship MS Amadea which is due to drop anchor in the bay on Monday morning.
Around 800 passengers, mainly German, are expected to leave the cruise liner to go sightseeing in the resort and the council is eager for everything to be shipshape ahead of their arrival.
During the week, teams of workers could be seen painting balustrades and bollards as well as having a general tidy up so that the zones in question are up to scratch.
The cruise liner is owned by German company Pheonix Reisen and it will be stopping in Benidorm as part of a pilot scheme to see if passengers are happy with stopovers at destinations other than Alicante.
The liner will drop anchor in the bay at around 07.30 and its passengers will be taken ashore using its own launches.
They will have just over five hours to explore the town before departing for another port at 13.00.
The local authority is hoping that during their five-hour stay in the resort the passengers will spend big.
A spokesman added that a fleet of coaches has also been laid on to take them on excursions to places such as Guadalest, Jávea, Dénia, Calpe and Altea.