Benidorm strengthens cleaning, lifeguard, and beach security services ahead of Easter.

• The city will have three accessible beach points and lifeguard service operational until 7 p.m.

• The Local Police force will add 14 additional officers to the regular shift each day, to which must also be added the reinforcement planned by the National Police.

Benidorm's beaches are now ready for the start of Easter, the first major holiday season of the year, which, starting this weekend, will bring thousands of tourists to the city to enjoy the festive season. The Councilor for Beaches, Mónica Gómez, announced today that the City Council and the beach management body have designed a special cleaning, lifeguard, and beach safety program for this important tourist event. She announced that, "as usual, all these services will be reinforced to accommodate the expected occupancy of our beaches during these holidays." 

Mónica Gómez noted that "Benidorm's beaches are among the few on the Spanish coast that offer lifeguard and cleaning services twelve months a year; these services are increased or reinforced during Easter and summer to meet the high demand that always occurs during these two peak seasons." Specifically, regarding this first major tourist event of the year, the special operation will cover the dates from April 12 to 27, when school holidays and public holidays fall in the various autonomous communities of our country, and with particular emphasis on the period from April 17 to 21, when public holidays coincide in all regions. 

In the case of rescue and lifeguard services, the service will extend its hours and will operate from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with five lifeguards in Poniente, another five in Levante, and one in Mal Pas. In addition, there will be two ambulances exclusively for the beaches, one in Levante and one in Poniente, each staffed by a nurse and an emergency technician, as well as a first-aid point staffed by nursing staff. This service will be supported by a boat on the water equipped with a lifeguard and a skipper; and on land, a coordinator and a beach manager. 

Also during Easter, the city's three accessible beach areas will be open, located on Murcia Street (Levante), in Elche Park, and in La Cala, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., to facilitate swimming for people with mobility issues. There will be two lifeguards at each of these areas, as Councilor Mónica Gómez explained.

Regarding security, Benidorm City Council will also reinforce its police presence on the beaches and surrounding areas during the indicated dates, with a total of fourteen additional officers daily, distributed across different shifts, who will join the regular staff to reinforce control and surveillance. Specifically, there will be four additional officers on the 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift; one officer and three officers on the 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift; and one officer and five officers on the night shift, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., who will be deployed between Thursday, April 17, and Monday, April 21. 

In addition, the Local Police boat will be operational, complementing the work also carried out by the company that holds the concession for comprehensive beach management. A patrol car will always be available in Levante and Poniente. In addition to this, the National Police Force will also be providing additional reinforcements for the same period.

Regarding the cleaning service, the human resources will be increased to 20, as will the frequency of manual collection, introducing afternoon, evening, and pelican boat shifts. Thus, there will be three manual cleaning shifts on the three beaches: morning, afternoon, and evening, with a total of eleven, two, and six workers, respectively. In addition to this, mechanical cleaning with tractors and sieves will be carried out entirely during the night, between 9:00 PM and 4:20 AM, and will involve four additional workers.  

The councilor noted that all the aforementioned additional services aim to "guarantee the safety of residents and tourists, reinforcing attention at strategic points and ensuring a rapid response to any emergency" and hoped that activity on the beaches during these days "will proceed normally, without incidents, allowing all users to enjoy our most precious asset: the beaches," according to Mónica Gómez.

Improvement works

Finally, the Councilor for Beaches noted that during the off-season, "taking advantage of the time when there are fewer people on the beaches, various maintenance and improvement projects have been carried out at numerous locations, as well as the traditional intensive cleaning of the sandbanks" and other initiatives to improve the condition and appearance of our coastline. 

Among these, she indicated, are the movement and lowering of sand in areas with heavy accumulation. In addition, the walkways have been lengthened; the Lavapiés area has been cleaned, disinfected, and painted; lifeguard huts have been painted and adapted; and maintenance pruning of oasis areas in Levante and Poniente has been carried out.

Mónica Gómez also noted that "at the City Council, we continue to expand and encourage beach-related recycling among users," a practice implemented last summer in Levante. To this end, "a new recycling point has been installed in Elche Park to facilitate the deposit and circulation of items such as umbrellas, mats, buckets, shovels, chairs, and other items that can be used by other users."