Benahavis.net : Amigos de Benahavis

Amigos de Benahavís was formed in March 2008 to represent communities in the municipality. Its main objectives are to act as a forum on issues of common interest and to establish good communication with the town hall. Additionally, it aims to support and initiate social events.
From the start the association attracted strong support and currently there are 18 communities on its books. Delegates are generally the presidents of urbanizations.
Most meetings attract a guest speaker – so far these have included the mayor of Benahavís, all of the councilors and a Marbella lawyer. At its meeting in March the guest is Sra. Jolanda Jarczewska, founder and president of the Foreign Residents’ Association of Andalusia.

May, 29 : Benahavís mayor pledges co-operation with community presidents

Benahavis line-up (from left): Benahavis councillor Dña. Isabel Maria Guerrero Sanchez, Amigos de Benahavis chairman Neil Pettifer, the mayor of Benahavis, Don José Antonio Mena; Peter Letters, Town Hall communications officer; Jim Robertson, vice president.

In an unprecedented gesture the mayor of Benahavís has pledged to work with the presidents of urbanisations within the municipality to address problems and outstanding issues, as well as to encourage greater unity between nationals and expatriate residents.

The mayor, Don José Antonio Mena, was speaking at last week’s meeting of Amigos de Benahavís, a newly formed organisation representing communities through their presidents, many of whom come from outside Spain.

Sr. Mena welcomed the initiative to come together and described the concept of Amigos de Benahavís as “brilliant”.
He had agreed to outline his vision for the future of the municipality and to answer a series of questions, but he prefaced his remarks by saying that the AdB’s formation was a move toward greater co-operation between Spanish and non-Spanish communities.
He went on to offer to attend AdB meetings on a regular basis and this was unanimously accepted by those present who represented over 20 communities. He also made an undertaking to confer with members over plans for the main road into the village. This was described by AdB chairman Neil Pettifer as “enlightened, very welcome and highly encouraging”.
Sr. Mena, who was accompanied to the meeting by Dña. Isabel Maria Guerrero Sanchez, council member for foreigners, predicted that membership of AdB would rise to 30 or even 40 as more of the municipality’s urbanisations came on board. He said problems within individual communities were more likely to be resolved by their presidents working through the association.
Other key issues addressed by the Mayor included the new link to the Ronda road, new parking provision in the village and construction traffic.

Sra. Jarczewska was addressing the February meeting of Amigos de Benahavís, the association of presidents from the municipality. During the discussion that followed she suggested that Benahavís, with its high proportion of non-Spanish residents and home-owners, might be a good place for a congress of foreigners. The members agreed that the proposal should be put to the Town Hall.

Later the meeting voted to pursue the idea of a forum for businesses in the municipality which is famous for its bars and restaurants. The object would be to find out how hard the economic crisis was affecting them and to consider initiatives to ameliorate the downturn.

At the same meeting Isabel Maria Guerrero Sánchez, Benahavís councillor for urbanizations, revealed a range of initiatives by the council, including free medical insurance for infants and an extension to the village’s medical centre. The new Town Hall building should be completed by the end of the year and construction of a road connecting the A7175 to the Ronda Road was nearing completion.

Sra. Guerrero also revealed that the council was in the process of creating a single water company to improve the supply of drinking water to all parts of the municipality.

This meeting of Amigos de Benahavís was significant for two reasons. First it was the first to be held outside the village centre – members were guests of the Los Arqueros development and met in the superb setting of the golf club. Second it drew the largest number of delegates –over 20, including a number of new representatives.

■ The Foreign Residents’ Association of Andalucía has two main objectives: to protect the rights of foreigners, and to promote their integration in the Andalucían environment.

There was a record turn-out at the most recent meeting of Amigos de Benahavís, including a number of new members