The municipality of Assen reports the leaking of secret information to RTV Drenthe about the purchase of two shop properties in the city center. RTV Drenthe reported the purchase price of almost 15 million euros at the end of last year before the purchase was officially closed and had drawings in its possession. According to Mayor Marco Out, this was secret information.
The purchase, which was completed in mid-December, revolved around the V&D shopping complexes and ‘t Forum Noord. It had been an open secret for some time that the municipality was preying on the buildings on Koopmansplein, because the location was becoming increasingly impoverished.
Project developer Vastgoed Groningen BV bought the buildings years ago for redevelopment with homes and shops. But they could not reach an agreement with the municipality about what could be built.
The parties involved then shrouded themselves in silence. That was suddenly broken in the December city council. At that time, a multi-million investment for a new open-air swimming pool in Assen was in order. It soon became apparent that a council majority did not consider such an expenditure financially responsible, because difficult years were ahead.
Assen Centraal faction chairman Jan Talens then suddenly blurted out that a week later the municipality would ‘just spend a large sum of money to purchase the V&D building’.
That same evening, RTV Drenthe reported the story that Assen was going to purchase the city center location for almost 15 million euros, with the redevelopment of approximately 154 apartments. A design sketch was also included. According to Mayor Marco Out, there was a duty of confidentiality regarding that information and it was leaked to RTV Drenthe. That is punishable.
The misspoken councilor Talens is not taken into account for this. He received an official reprimand from Mayor Out. In his case it was ‘an unfortunate slip of the tongue’ in the municipal council. Talens had now also apologized for his mistake. This ended the case for him at the end of December. But the publication of RTV Drenthe will still have some development.
It remains unclear whether leaks have already been officially reported. Because the police “don’t make any announcements” about it. And the municipal spokesperson for Assen only wants to say “that the declaration process is ongoing”. It is now clear that work is still being done on a file to substantiate the declaration.
