As for the northern provinces alone, Nijboer could continue with painful examples. ‘From the Ter Apel prison to the Assen barracks, every time there is a struggle to maintain the facilities. Then it closes another swimming pool, then it closes another library. I would also like to say to the cabinet: how is it possible that small and medium-sized towns and villages in the Netherlands have 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’s a quality-of-life disaster if you add it all together and those structures are disappearing more and more. There really is one ennobling of the current campaign. The last twenty years have been economic with conscious politics winners chosen, and which is now disastrous.’
‘Dutch municipalities are financially completely on the corner.’
Nijboer completely lacks the will to really turn the tide in government. “Keeping village houses open is not free. The Dutch municipalities are financially totally on the ropes. They have little opportunity to make their own financial choices. One saves on poverty, the other on roads, public transport, libraries or city halls. As long as they have to choose between the soccer field, a theater or a town hall, it’s pretty much the end of it.’
Disappearing structures
At last week’s Elke Regio Telt roundtable, it was mentioned again that more and more structures are disappearing, especially in Groningen. As a result, the differences between the regions are only increasing, says Inge van Dijk, Member of the CDA. ‘As a result, quality of life and health care have come under pressure. We really need each other. I like the positive differences, let’s keep them, but let the disadvantaged regions catch up. It is not possible that we end up with unlivable situations in the Netherlands.’
According to Van Dijk, roundtables are important to connect administrators with local initiatives. ‘I think it is very important to give much more space to that power from below and to say as a government: sit down, then we will see how we can help you. You can see that very essential things can therefore remain intact. I was also finance commissioner, so I know what it’s like to have to make cuts. But if you give people the control themselves, you can sometimes get more for less money. We have to come up with clever things about it.’