Sagunto's 2027 participatory budget: six winning projects after record vote
Sagunto residents have voted for six projects worth 498,000 euros under the 2027 Participatory Budget, a citizen process that saw a record 2,103 voters take part.
Sagunto has wrapped up the third round of its Participatory Budget with a record figure: 2,103 residents cast a vote to decide which projects will go ahead in 2027 using part of the town's money. The council, through its Citizen Participation office (Concejalía de Participación Ciudadana, the department in charge of public involvement schemes), will hand out 498,000 euros in the end, close to the 500,000-euro ceiling it had set aside for the programme.
Two of the six winning projects target public schools. The most backed, "Cool down the schools", gathered 935 votes and will receive 125,000 euros; close behind came "Progressive climate conditioning of municipal public schools", with 689 votes and the same 125,000-euro allocation. Together they plan to fit classrooms with air conditioning or, where that is not possible, ceiling fans, as well as swapping playground asphalt for soil and planting more shade trees.
Education councillor Raúl Palmero notes that air-conditioning the schools ultimately depends on the regional education department (Conselleria de Educación, the Valencian government's education ministry), and first requires upgrading an electrical network that currently lacks enough capacity. With this funding the council will bring forward the preliminary technical studies, work that, he said, will help keep pressure on the regional government to take on its share of the job.
The other group of projects centres on playgrounds. "Renovate playgrounds in poor condition" picked up 732 votes and 120,000 euros, while "Shaded areas in playgrounds" came in with 594 votes and 110,000 euros. Both mainly target playgrounds with square-tiled rubber flooring, such as the one at Era de Porriti square (a public square in the city), where sunshades, pergolas or planting are due to go in to shelter children and families from the sun.
The two smaller-budget proposals round out the list: 336 residents backed a new playground, with a slide and swings, at the junction of Avenida País Valencià and Calle Los Huertos, which will get 8,000 euros; and 315 votes secured 10,000 euros to refurbish the table tennis tables at Triángulo Umbral (a square) in Puerto de Sagunto (coastal district).
For Citizen Participation councillor María Rubio, the value of this mechanism lies in letting residents not just choose what gets built, but also check afterwards how each project is progressing, adding to municipal transparency.
This process is now in its third year in Sagunto, after the council first launched it in 2025. The jump to 2,103 voters this time round confirms that resident interest has grown steadily since that first run.
Residents could vote or submit proposals if they were over 16 and registered on the municipal roll (padrón, the local register residents must join to access most council services) before 15 March this year, with a limit of three proposals per person. No single proposal could ask for more than 125,000 euros, a cap equal to a quarter of the programme's total funding, which is why the two most-voted school projects land on exactly that figure.
Before reaching the final vote there was a significant filter: of 127 proposals originally submitted, only 64 passed the technical screening and went to the public vote, held online from 15 to 30 September through the portal participa.sagunto.es, as the council reported at the time. The deadline to register those investment proposals had closed months earlier, on 31 May, as elperiodic.com reported at the time.
What has happened in previous rounds suggests the move from paper to finished work does not drag on: the Almardà playground (Almardà is a coastal village within the Sagunto municipality), one of the winners of the 2026 Participatory Budget with a 64,569-euro investment, is already finished and in use, according to El Periódico de Aquí last July.
According to Sagunto City Council, with additional information from elperiodic.com and El Periódico de Aquí.