Benidorm News Headlines
Benidorm Local News Headlines - Keep up to date with details of local and national news stories relating to Benidorm and the surrounding area. Click on the links to read the full stories.
Benidorm Local News Headlines 2024
15th April Local fires
13:00 -The fire is out of control in the mountains of TARBENA (ALICANTE) leading authorities to evacuate 180 people from their homes. Eight firefighters injured.
08:30The past 48 hours has seen seven wildfires in our region, of different size and virulence, but the biggest which was reported just after lunchtime yesterday (Sunday), broke out on the Serra de Ferrer, in the municipality of Tàrbena, between the coll de rates and Jalon.
The main road here is now shut to all but emergency services, as the fire which has consumed over 800 hectares, rages out of control.
At least 180 people have been evacuated, from as many as 40 properties.
A combination of high winds and temperatures, with the lack of rain making the countryside tinder dry man that just one spark is a recipe for disaster.
14th April - Taberna Fire between Coll de Rates and Penya Atalades.
Declared Situation 2 of the Special Plan of Forest Fires in the Tàrbena area, and at the request of the Valencian Generalitat, the Government of Spain activates the UME of Betera and allocates two SEALS from the base of Torrejon de Ardoz to deal with the fire.
At this time 11 staff from the parks of Benidorm, Denia, Benissa, Cocentaina, San Vincent and Elda. More Forest Fire Media and Aerial Media
SPECIAL FIRES PLANES -Water is being used from the Dam at Guadalest and the sea in Altea Bay.
Level 2 Fires: Those where the intervention of state media not assigned to the INFOEX Plan is considered necessary or may lead to national emergencies.
Strong wind gusts are hindering the firefighting efforts.
14th April - The Guardia Civil have detained a 38 year old ambulance driver, who took a couple in their 70´s from Benidorm to Vilajoyosa hospital, and during the trip stole a bag that the lady was carrying, which contained 230€ in cash, plus 4,500€ in jewellery. The lady was worried about leaving the bag in their hotel, not knowing how long they might have to remain at the medical facility. She didnt miss the bag (because of the nature of the medical emergency), until they were released, when she reported it missing. After a short investigation the Guardia suspected the ambulance driver, and he was duly arrested. The good news is that the jewellery was recovered intact, and the couple have now travelled from their home in Barcelona to thank the Guardia and reclaim it. The ambulance driver is now waiting for his court appearance.
4th March - Villajoyosa Fire - A married couple and their 5 year old son tragically died in the fire which started on the 11th floor of a 24-story building on Avenida Dels Mariners 1 (tower 3) in La Cala de Villajoyosa.
Emergency services received the call at 02:13, the fire was extinguished at 07:34.
Fifteen others suffered from smoke inhalation, including one police office and were taken to Marina Baixa Hospital for treatment, around 100 people were evacuated, whilst others depending on their location were confined to their rooms.
23rd February - Image from the rescue of a drunken man, said to be a "foreign origin tourist" (nationality not given,) who was rescued after jumping into the sea in a drunken state from rocks in the rincon de Loix area of Benidorm.
The man was rescued after being aided in the first instance by some nearby anglers who witnessed his actions. Several emergency services vehicles and personnel of municipal police, national police, fire service and a paramedic ambulance attended the scene, and the man was rescued from the sea, suffering the effects of hypothermia.
There are calls from local people for him to be charged for the costs incurred by the emergency services
20th February - Yet more shops raided in the Rincon area of Benidorm, as police and representatives of the genuine companies seek to root out cheap copies of sporting clothes (football shirts etc).
In this latest operation, municipal police of Benidorm raided three shops, confiscating 1300 articles, and detaining two people. The clothes would have been worth 80,000€ if genuine. The two people detained have been charged with copyright offences.
18th February - The town hall of of Benidorm has given the green light to the construction of a new crematorium for the town, by approving construction licences at a meeting this week.
The new extensive facility will be situated on land near to the existing cemetery, It has been included in existing plans to extend the cemetery from its present 41,780 m2 to its planned 91,000m2.
Mayor of Benidorm Toni Pérez, commented that the new crematorium will have all the expected facilities, and avoid the current need for residents to travel to other towns to say their goodbyes to their loved ones.
18th February - A 34 year old Polish man, who was wanted on a European arrest warrant, and tracked down to a rented tourist apartment in Benidorm by the national police working on information from the specialist organised crime unit, from police headquarters in Alicante city. The man had committed offences of fraud, falsifying and trafficking false documents, armed robbery, kidnap and holding hostages. He had been sentenced to 7.5 years jail at a place called Breslavia in Poland, and had 5 years 11 months left to serve. He is to be sent from a Benidorm judge to Madrid, from where he will be extradited back to Poland.
17th February - Arguments between political parties in the town hall of Benidorm over the plan to reform and convert the old bullring in the town into a modern study and culture area, with also a permanent staging/lighting area. The bullring fell into terminal disuse many years ago, and has remained in a semi abandoned state for years, with barriers stopping entry due to its dangerous state in some areas. A few years ago the ambitious conversion project was drawn up, with the works projected to cost 13.7 million euros. However since that date the whole scheme is said to have been relegated to a "dusty drawer". The political rows are over whether the scheme will ever become reality, or not.
21st January - In the National court in Madrid today; A young British man who posted on SnapChat as he was about to board an EasyJet aicraft at Gatwick, en route to the Spanish island of Menorca. His message was that he going to blow up the plane he was on, as "He was a member of the Taliban". The message was picked up by the British security forces as the plane was over France and about to enter Spanish airspace, and the Spanish authorities scrambled a Eurofighter aircraft, as is the protocol, to accompany the aircraft until it safely landed. No bomb was found, but the prank call is going to cost him dearly. The Spanish public prosecutor is asking a fine of 22,500€, and the compensation payment of 94,782€ to the Spanish ministry of defence, for the cost of scrambling the eurofighter. He is lucky to be not facing a long jail sentence.
5th January - Pictured during his arrest in a Benidorm street. A 50 year old Lithuanian man called "Aidas J". He is known by the Spanish police by his nickname "gastrojeta". His "specialty" is eating and drinking in bars and restaurants, before either sneaking out without paying, or feigning an illness and collapsing, then escaping in the confusion.
He has accumulated 23 arrests for such acts in Alicante city in just over a year, but it appears he has now moved his centre of operations to Benidorm. He is seen being detained in Benidorm, after the Chinese owner of a shop spotted him stealing, and chased him through the streets.
Police also found a stolen credit card in his pockets. Keep an eye out for this guy especially if you have a bar or restaurant!
Benidorm Local News Headlines 2023
28th December - A major police operation in Benidorm, sees seven properties raided and six people detained, all from the same family group, in relation to drug dealing in the town. Despite having no obvious type of work, the group had amassed between them possessions and cash valued of at least 500,000€. Confiscated in the raids were 485 grams of hashish, 87 grams of cocaine, 21 grams of heroin, an expensive vehicle, items used for the cutting and weighing of drugs and also 83,810 euros in cash!
29th November - National police of Benidorm have swooped on a so called "social club" in Alfaz del Pi, after discrete observations revealed a large number of people "coming and going" to the premises for short periods of time. The raid confirmed their suspicions that the social club was actually just a drug distribution point, and 4.7 kilos of marijuana, 230 grams of hashish, and 155 ready made joints were discovered. The police had checked with the town hall before the raid, and discovered that the social club had actually had its licence suspended by them some time before. A total of ten men of UK, Spanish, French, Moroccan and Dutch nationality were detained and put at the disposition of the courts in Benidorm.
21st November - A 62 year old British man has been detained in Benidorm, after he was discovered to be offering an internet based television service, offering up to 594 TV channels, without having any authorisation from the TV companies concerned to do so. He was collecting between 7 and 50 UK pounds a week, per user, depending on what "package" was chosen. Police found some of his publicity, which proudly claimed to have offered his services "for ten years to bars and restaurants" (Whoops!) Police were able to enter some of his banking apps, and discovered at least 5,500 transactions, worth at least 185,000 pounds sterling, and 6,500€. He has been put at the disposition of the Benidorm court.
13th September - Gemelos 28, the saga continues, will they or wont they be demolished...
12th September - Did you know?? There is a system of 20 special "counting cameras" situated on the access points to Benidorm's Poniente beach.
This automated system registers the amount of people entering and leaving the beach, recording details such as time of day etc. This is in addition to the normal security cameras situated along the front, which collect normal images. The "counting cameras" are enabling the town hall to identify zones where facilities need to be increased, to deal with extra visitors among other things.
Plans are to extend the system to the small beach of Mal Pas, then the main Levante beach. The system which works 24 hours a day 365 days a year, counted almost a million people entering and leaving Poniente beach in the months of July and August
4th August - 3 Beach Sellers Arrested PLEASE DO NOT USE THE BEACH SELLERS/VENDORS https://www.benidormseriously.com/benidorm-beach-vendors
A team of municipal police become suspicious of a van parked near Dove Park and the activities of the people going to and from it, and decided to investigate. They found low quality fruit and alcohol, stored in dirty conditions, ready to be made to sell to unsuspecting tourists on the beach.
Three of the sellers who were from the same family were detained and the van itself was impounded.
The officers also found that this "organised gang" even had a card reader ready for use to charge the tourists.}
2nd August - National police of Benidorm have detained three young men of between 18 and 19 years of age, who's habitual residence was given as Madrid, for spray painting some of our local trams. They were caught on security cameras vandalising them in the area of the tram stop of TerraMitica, and were caught by police after a short chase.
The Madrileños have caused damage valued at 8,500€. Some reports say that they also placed rocks on the lines, to prevent trams moving off, presumably to give them more time to vandalise them. They have been put at the disposition of a Benidorm judge.
12th June - More than 20 years have passed since the first plans were unveiled for the new commercial centre at Benidorm. Since then a "ceremonial stone" was laid back in 2017...But since then...Nothing has moved! The problem has always been refusals from the Government´s Ministry of public works to allow direct access from the National Carretera N332.
The town hall have eventually managed to negotiate a new access road from the area of the current ITV station. Construction of this one kilometre long, four lane road (with inevitable bike lanes!) has now started. The access road will take about a year to finish, after that construction of the commercial centre itself is free to start.
3rd June - With the planning and permissions needed being completed, and the necessary environmental studies coming out as favourable, the town hall and promotors of the Ensanche Levante de Benidorm development plan can now sit down to work out the finer details of streets, buildings, green zones and other elements of development on the 575,000 sq metre site, the plan is not to cram as many buildings into the area as possible, in fact 122,134 metres of the land has to be developed as green zones, to create public open spaces.
12th May - Ambitious plans have been unveiled by Benidorm town hall to construct a lift, to take people from the base of the headland that is situated at the end of Poniente beach, to the top, near the site of the ruins of a small Roman "fort" situated there.
The Roman ruins are becoming quite an attraction for the town, but access is currently limited due to their situation, 72.25 metres above sea level. The construction of a lift has an estimate of 3 million euros, and funding options and technical issues are due to be discussed at the town hall meeting of next Monday.
Benidorm Local News Headlines
19th March - Benidorm town hall is looking at renovation plans for its famous Levante beach- Pictured is one of the proposals, which include areas of dunes, with special grasses to help prevent erosion.
Other ideas include things such as swimming lanes! Away from the beach, around the area called the Parque de la Séquia Mare, which is between the top of the Avenida Europa and the old discos, there are plans to construct a camping and "multi-adventure" park.
3rd February - LOCAL NEWS - 3rd February 2023 UNLICENCED ATMs
Benidorm town hall has finally started action, against the companies that operate the multitude of what they say are unlicenced ATM machines around the town.
The town hall has identified 196 machines, owned and run by 3 companies, which charge high commissions and give lower rates, especially to non Eurozone country customers. Read more HERE
Benidorm Local News Headlines
19th January - Benidorm adds five new containers for the "Caps for a new life" campaign.
The new containers are located in La Cala (Calle Secretario Juan Baldoví), Rincón de Loix (Calle Juan Fuster Zaragoza), Els Tolls (Avenida Bélgica), Colonia Madrid (Centro Social Llorca Linares), Centro (Calle Maravall with Plaza Neptuno). The original container is located just in front of the town hall on Avenida de l'Aigüera.
This project is aimed at collecting plastic caps for recycling, and helps minors in need of assistance for diseases not covered by ordinary health systems".
The SEUR Foundation launched the initiative "Plugs for a new life" in 2011 and since then the campaign has made it possible for almost 200 beneficiary children from all over Spain to receive medical or orthopaedic treatments thanks to a collection that exceeds 1.3 million euros.
6th January - Work finally gets underway for Benidorm's brand new health centre (Centro de Salud).
The area has now been fenced off and the current car park will be closed in the next few days (a new car park is available just a few meters away)
The new building, has a budget of 4.3 million euros, and will replace the current auxiliary office on Avenida Juan Fuster Zaragoza, it will have an area of 2,507 square meters with ground floor and two upper floors, It will also house a medical transport area, based on basic life support and ambulances that will be located on the ground floor, the new salud will also provide nineteen family medicine practitioners and nursing consultations, triage, paediatrics, women's care and more.
Building is estimated to take 23 months.
Benidorm Local News Headlines 2022
Benidorm Local News Headlines
24th October Bus Turistico has been suspended
The town hall of Benidorm has finally put a stop to the business which has been running the "tourist bus" around the town for almost 20 years, without paying the town hall or ratepayers for the business authorisation to do so.
A similar business, the one that was running the "tourist train", was paying 182,000€ a year to carry out its business activities, the company that ran the bus pictured, only paid into public funds the sum of 6,000€ a year, for the use of three bus stops to pick up and unload passengers.
There were also concerns over the exhaust fumes from the 22-year-old diesel vehicle being used.
There will now be an opportunity for tenders from companies that want to run the service.
28th September - A campaign to collect old plastic bottle tops which are then sent for recycling has been running in the province of Alicante for some time. The money raised from this bottle cap collection is used exclusively to help local sick children, who´s special needs may not be covered by social security-based care.
Many have asked in the past..."Where can we take our plastic tops to help"? Benidorm town hall has responded, and this heart shaped container is for exclusive use to deposit your bottle tops. This container is located on the Avenida de l'Aigüera (the road that runs up alongside the town hall, Benidorm Old Town).
The charity behind this fund-raising scheme is the Fundación SEUR, who recently gave a cheque to an 8-year-old called Leo from Benidorm, who was able to use the money for aquatic therapy sessions, to help with his Hirschsprung condition, which is associated with his Downs syndromes
26th August - Scooter misuse in Benidorm - 300 disciplinary proceedings issued.
25th August - Tragic accident as British woman dies on her way to the Cross
24th August - Hotel Robberies, 2 people detained.
In a joint operation carried out by Benidorm National police and the Guardia Civil, they detained the two-person criminal gang that were responsible for the wave of robberies from hotel rooms in the town over the past few weeks. The couple, male and female of Algerian nationality, dressed in swimwear to blend in with real tourists before entering hotels and found quiet passageways where they could force open hotel doors. Once inside they took anything of value, sometimes even ripping out the entire locked safe. On some occasions they even used the victim's own suitcase to carry the loot out of the hotel!
Despite the leader of the gang using eight different identities, the police tracked them down and arrested them as they were about to commit yet another robbery in central Benidorm. The investigation continues but it is thought they have been the perpetrators of around 55 robberies.
According to the complaints filed by the victims, the thieves, who were traveling in a rental car with French license plates, stole about 9,000 euros in cash, bank cards with which they made purchases in shops, jewellery and mobile phones. They are also accused of belonging to a criminal group, falsifying documents and fraud.
6th June - Magic Villa de Benidorm Hotel, Updates
The hotel chain Magic Costa Blanca has presented an interior reform plan (PRI) to be able to expand and reform the facilities of the Villa de Benidorm hotel. In order to carry out this project, the company and the City Council will sign an agreement in which Magic Costa Blanca undertakes to pay 650,486 euros to the municipal land heritage.
The Villa de Benidorm, which has remained closed since November 2019, the current hotel has 120 rooms and a three-star category.
The new plans see an expansion on room sizes which would raise the hotels Star category to a 4* superior, extra floors are planned, raising the building from its current 7 floors to 12, this will add an additional 62 rooms, giving the hotel a total of 182 rooms, all common spaces will also be refurbed.
Spanish Hotel Star Ratings Explained HERE
13th May - Plaza de Toros de Benidorm (Benidorm Bull Ring)
Plans have been unveiled for the total upgrading of Benidorm´s old bullfighting ring and its surroundings. Plans for the ten mllion euro project are currently on display to the public at the town hall until May 18th.
The plans include the turning of the surroundings into a multifunctional social type facility, with new services such as a library, study rooms, youth centre, multi-social-use centre - which will function as a hotel of associations - meeting hall, youth information centre, exhibition hall etc. These plans also include the creation of a stage in the and renovation of the stands in the bull square. The whole building and surrounding areas have been in a state of deterioration for years.
The costs of 10 million Euros are being shared between the Town Hall of Benidorm and FEDUSI funds
Benidorm Local News Headlines
OLDER NEWS HEADLINES
60 arrested in Valencia for defrauding 20 million euros in a Fake inheritance scam
Fake news or hoaxes on social media can be classed as a crime in Spain
Be careful what you write on Social Media in Spain
Illegal Property Rentals – More Inspections in the future.
Britons die after taking Spanish painkiller Nolotil
