Farmers may be officially bought out, the European Commission decided this week. In addition, Theodoor V., the former nurse at the Wilhelmina Hospital in Assen, told several mental health care employees that he deliberately killed twenty corona patients. Here you can read an overview of the most important news in Drenthe last week.
Starting entrepreneurs in Emmen receive intensive guidance for six months to start their business. The Vlying Startprocess must literally give new entrepreneurs a flying start. “By combining the range of partners we all have here, we can both help with development and help with networking,” says Dènis Assen of Growing Emmen.
Farmers have reacted with incomprehension to new nitrogen regulations. Potatoes grown in sandy and loess soil should be harvested before October 1, so that crops can be planted that absorb more nitrogen. “We won’t harvest if we put a potato in the shed that we know will rot,” says potato grower Henk Bosma. “You have to wait, because what good are rotten potatoes.”
The farmers are also in the news on Wednesday, but now it’s about the buyout scheme for peak taxers. The European Commission has approved that farmers who emit a lot of nitrogen near Natura2000 areas may be bought out.
This news has not provided clarity to farmers for the time being. “There is no clarity about it, so companies don’t know what choices they have,” says Dirk Bruins of LTO Noord. According to Bruins, only one choice is now presented and that is to stop. “Other choices are not presented now.”
The 31-year-old Theodoor V. from Veenhuizen told several mental health care providers that he had ended the lives of twenty patients prematurely, the Public Prosecution Service announced on Thursday. In his eyes, these people would have suffered severely and he would have performed medical procedures without the knowledge of a doctor. The GGZ Drenthe tipped off the Wilhelmina Hospital in Assen in response to these signals.
According to Jan Hoekman, press officer of the Public Prosecution Service, this report is not yet sufficient to prosecute V. “In criminal law, the statement of a suspect alone is never sufficient to convict someone. You will need other evidence that supports the statement.”
In the night from Thursday to Friday, a large fire broke out in the Paaskamp nature reserve near Assen. A special team of the fire brigade had to come on Friday to extinguish hundreds of smoldering fires. An area of six to eight hectares is estimated to have been completely blackened. The cause of the fire is not yet known.