The cabinet must be generous with money to maintain or improve the level of facilities in all regions. The current regional policy is disastrous, says PvdA Member of Parliament Henk Nijboer in the radio program BNR Breaks. As an example, he mentions the Children’s Heart Center in Groningen, on which many families with children depend. It was only a hair’s breadth or it was gone. ‘And then you’re not even talking about investing to make it better, but to keep it in the first place.’
With regard to the northern provinces alone, Nijboer could go on with painful examples. ‘From the prison in Ter Apel to the barracks in Assen, every time there is a struggle to maintain facilities at all. Then another swimming pool closes, then another library closes. I would also like to say to the cabinet: how is it possible that the smaller and medium-sized towns and villages in the Netherlands are getting increasingly poor facilities, why are they not doing anything about it?’
No one needs to tell Nijboer that it costs a lot of money and that it is less profitable to maintain libraries, schools, hospitals and public transport in the countryside than in Amsterdam, for example. ‘But it is a disaster for quality of life if you add everything together and those facilities are disappearing more and more. There is a real transformation of the countryside going on. Over the past twenty years, economic winners have been selected with a conscious policy, and that has now turned out to be disastrous.’
‘Dutch municipalities are financially completely in the ropes.’
Nijboer completely lacks the will to really turn the tide in the cabinet. ‘Keeping village houses open is not free. Dutch municipalities are financially totally in the ropes. They have few opportunities to make their own financial choices. One economizes on poverty, the other on roads, public transport, libraries or village halls. As long as they have to choose between the football field, a theater or a village hall, it’s pretty much the end of it.’
Disappearing facilities
At the round table discussion Elke Regio Telt last week, it was once again mentioned that more and more facilities are disappearing, especially in Groningen. As a result, the differences between the regions are only getting bigger, says CDA MP Inge van Dijk. ‘As a result, quality of life and health care have come under pressure. We really need each other. I like the good differences, let’s maintain them, but make sure that the disadvantaged regions can catch up again. It cannot be the case that we end up with unlivable situations in the Netherlands.’
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According to Van Dijk, round table discussions are important to bring administrators into contact with local initiatives. ‘I think it’s very important to give that power from below much more room and say as a government: sit down, then we’ll see how we can help you. You can see that very essential things can therefore remain intact. I’ve been an alderman for finance myself, so I know what it’s like to have to make cuts. But if you give people control themselves, you can sometimes achieve more with less money. We have to come up with smart things about that.’
