Is the province about anything other than wolves and nitrogen? Well, also about the N34 and a new stadium for FC Emmen, for example.
And the ladies and gentlemen politicians also know how to conduct a nice debate on this, as it turned out on Tuesday evening during the final party leaders’ debate for the provincial elections on Wednesday. It took place in the atrium of RTV Drenthe, led by Margriet Benak and Serge Vinkenvleugel.
Money for football palace
The dyed-in-the-wool CDA party leader and deputy Henk Jumelet even had a difficult time on Tuesday evening in a debate with 20-year-old party leader Tom Koekoek of the SGP about that new stadium for FC Emmen. The question was whether the province should put money into a new football palace on De Oude Meerdijk.
Jumelet is open to this, because the plan actually includes a multifunctional center where you can not only play football, but also undertake other sporting activities. “Children from miles around will flock to it,” predicted Jumelet. “Think of all the villages in the municipality of Emmen, even Borger-Odoorn.”
SGP member Koekoek believes that the province should mainly invest the scarce money in grassroots sports, for people who do not exercise enough at the moment. “Use every available euro for people who really need it,” he told Jumelet. “And you really have to do that in the villages and neighborhoods themselves.”
Doubling N34
The current provincial government leaves an open question: what to do with the N34? A few months ago, deputy Nelleke Vedelaar (PvdA) announced that there is not enough money left to double the road section between Emmen and De Punt over 12 kilometers. That only works over 6 kilometers. And the junction at Gieten can be adapted for the amount of 90 million that is on the shelf for the plans.
VVD leader Willemien Meeuwissen is eager to succeed her fellow party member Henk Brink as deputy and already knows a solution to find the 40 million that would still make it possible to continue with the original plan. “At Gieten the N34 crosses with the N33. The N34 belongs to the province, the N33 to the State. If the government contributes to the plan to make that intersection grade-separated, we will have more money.”
That partial doubling should help to make the N34 safer. But according to Monique Fikenscher of Volt, more creative solutions are possible to make the road safer. Yvonne Turenhout of the PvdA would like to lobby the government for money, but in the first place to realize better railways. “We now have delays every week on the track between Meppel and Zwolle,” she stated.
Open nerve
Another open nerve in Drenthe: the permanent occupation of holiday homes. Especially the right-wing parties want to make short work of municipal councils that delay in legalizing it, if there are no very hard arguments not to do so. Like that of Midden-Drenthe. They supported Kees Hulsman, chairman of the association of owners of De Heerlickheyt in Hoogersmilde, who has been arguing with the municipality of Midden-Drenthe for years about permanent living in this park. “We just have to arrange this, without a whole bus full of lawyers driving up,” says JA21 leader Thomas Blinde. “Sometimes the regulations just have to follow practice.”
And of course it was also about nitrogen. Renate Zuiker (Partij voor de Dieren) explained that her party wants fewer animals and more farmers, because that is necessary in extensive agriculture. Arjen Schuiling (Belang van Nederland) completely disagrees with her, but there was no hard collision. Schuiling once again explained the importance of livestock farming. “You cannot grow potatoes on most meadows, only grass. But grass is worthless. Cows turn it into valuable dairy and meat.”