In Nieuw-Buinen the complaints about nuisance in the multifunctional accommodation (MFA) have been stacking for years. The sports hall and the square, intended as a meeting place, are increasingly being plagued by nuisance -giving young people. “They climb on the roof, penetrate unsolicited, piss against the door and leave glass and cigarette butts behind,” says Freddy de Bruin of Dorpsbelangen Nieuw-Buinen. “You don’t want that, do you?”
After almost two years of reporting and few visible results, Dorpsbelangen made the decision: there had to be a letter to the college and the city council. “You can wait, but if nothing happens, you have to choose a different way. The bucket is full,” says De Bruin.
According to Alderman Ankie van Tongeren (ChristenUnie & CDA), the signals are known and solutions are being worked on. “We already knew the sounds, this did not just come out of the blue. Boas come by regularly and have conversations with the young people. But we have to get rid of temporary solutions, because it is a structural problem. We want to talk to the youth, because what makes them do what they do? Is boredom?”
The other side sees village interests too. “They really are not bad boys,” De Bruin emphasizes. “But if they have nothing to do and have no place to get together, it goes wrong. They have suggested putting a sea container with bench somewhere, where they bother anyone. That is in itself to arrange, but it will be in a remote place and the young people prefer not to.”
The youth box has recently been opened again, but there the legal alcohol ban is strictly maintained for up to 18 years. “So those young people don’t go there. You really have to think of something that matches these young people.”
In addition to the nuisance, something else is playing, because the surroundings of the MFA is dark and unclear. “When parents bring their children to the sports hall, they have to go over a pitch -dark schoolyard. There are groups of young people with loud music, you hardly see them and that feels intimidating,” says De Bruin. “There was once a plan for more lighting, but we don’t hear anything anymore.”
Soon Nieuw-Buinen, at the MFA, will have a pump track track, a kind of obstacle course for bicycles, steps and skates. Alderman Van Tongeren sees that as a chance: “Such a job is stupid proof and difficult to demolish. It gives young people a sporting challenge and a place where they can lose their energy.”
But De Bruin is skeptical. “I am afraid that the problem will only be moved. First we are waiting for the recovery of fencing from the Pannaveld, and now there will be a pump track. But if there is glass or if the fencing breaks again, we will be again with nuisance. We have to make a solution that works not just a new place where young people are sent away again.”
Another problem is the lack of supervision. “We no longer have a local police officer, who has been out of the running for months. Only a few boas are walking around, but we see them especially in Borger, while we have just as many residents. And if there is already an agent, they can sometimes do nothing because there are no rules black on white.”
De Bruin gives an example about an issue in which young people cycled over the Pannaveld. “They can’t do that, because that destroys the field. But the local police officer couldn’t say anything about it, because there is no sign hanging that that is actually not allowed.”
In mid -October a conversation is planned with the municipality, the council and parties involved. “We hope that a solution will come out,” said De Bruin.