Entrepreneur Leo Lubberink saw it all the way: the Steenbergerhoeve in Zuidwolde sells to the municipality of De Wolden as a transfer site for refugees. But in the end it didn’t happen. The entrepreneur is disappointed about the way it went.
Two years ago the first conversations with De Wolden about reception on the estate. The farm from 1862 would serve as a transfer house for asylum seekers to relieve the registration center in Ter Apel Lubberink.
Based on the Spreading Act, the municipality was given the task of temporarily catching one hundred and fifty, but exchanged the number for fifty minor refugees. The Steenbergerhoeve seemed perfect for that, but the plug was pulled out of the plan.
After protest from a group of Zuidwoldigers, who fear nuisance from the young people and reject the municipal appointment of up to fifteen people per location, the Steenbergerhoeve fell off. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers wants a minimum of fifty, otherwise it will be too expensive.
As a result, the municipal administration blew the plan and Lubberink was left empty -handed. “Normally people can rent spaces here. I have kept the agenda twice to get the plans around,” he says during a telephone conversation.
And that means that the entrepreneur has less income. He thinks it is even worse that the municipality said he did not tell anything about the change in the plans. “I got it between nose and lips by hearing a month later.”
Lubberink does understand the concerns about the nuisance of the neighborhood and does not find the way of communicating the involved municipal officials chic. “When the new target group was served, I thought: the neighborhood will not be happy with this.”
According to the entrepreneur it was no longer possible to pull the plug from the appointment. “I was at a point that I had to deliver, also because the municipality had already incurred many costs with investigations into the purchase.”
He then attempted to get compensation for the damage suffered, but according to the businessman the municipality did not give at home.
Lubberink now rents out the building and is on sale for 3.5 million euros. He is not resentful so he wants to forget it soon, but the state of affairs has left a strange aftertaste to him.
De Wolden was asked for a response, but responds at a later time. For example, the subject is on the agenda of the municipal administration tomorrow and it will be discussed further.