From January 2025, Brits visiting Benidorm will have to purchase a permit to enter some areas of the city, and failing to do so could land you a £168 fine
A strict new law could see Brits abroad in Benidorm coming back with something worse than bad sunburn.
From January 2025, locals and tourists alike will be forced to adhere to a new set of environmental regulations. Officials have designated 75 hectares of the city and parts of the Levante as being subject to Benidorm’s new Low Emission Zone (ZBE). Permits will be needed to enter the zone, which will be purchased through a dedicated phone application. Initially, it will be rolled out as a six-month trial period to help the public learn the new system. People found to have fallen foul of the new regulations could be hit with a fine of up to €200 (£168). A phone app has been created to enable drivers to buy permits when they need them.
Francis Muñoz, city mobility councillor, told the Olive Press: “This will apply to class B vehicles that are not classified as non-polluting. Thanks to the phone app, motorists will be able to check out on available parking areas and travel directly to them without going through the centre of Benidorm or other restricted areas.”
He added: “We want more space for pedestrians and to make it a friendlier city without causing any trauma as many of the measures like bike lanes and pedestrianisation have all been done before by us.” Benidorm is situated on Spain’s eastern coast in a region known as the Costa Blanca in Valencia. The city – which welcomed more than 2.7m tourists last year – was once a simple fishing village. The seaside resort is located on the eastern coast of Spain, part of the Valencia region’s famed Costa Blanca. Eight-hundred-thousand of last year’s tourists were British nationals.
It comes after concerns were raised and Brits were advised against heading to the resort’s beaches after dark following a spate of robberies. TikTok content creator @frankthestagman wrote: “You’d be amazed at what happens down towards the front there. Lots of people come down here at night and get up to stuff that’s kind of like, how can I put it, naughty.
“If you come down to the beach at night and you find a little corner down there or between the deck chairs or put them together so you can do what you wanna do, please bear in mind there are people who are called the Serpientes [the serpents]. “What they do is they crawl down underneath these deck chairs and they can relieve you of your handbags, your phone, your wallets.”
