The chance that a temporary school will be built for two years in the new Nieuwveense Landen district in Meppel does not seem very likely. Local politics still has many questions and is critical. Only the largest party, Sterk Meppel, is currently interested in a temporary school for 1.3 million euros.
De Nieuwveense Landen will have a school anyway, but it won’t be ready until the end of 2027. There will be two primary schools and a childcare center here. In fact, the lessons should already be given, because the summer of 2024 was initially set as the deadline. This was not achieved and it caused several delays. Construction hasn’t even started yet. The costs have already risen considerably. Original cost: 5 million, current expected cost: 12.5 million.
That is why the municipality wants a temporary school in the neighborhood in the meantime. This must be located in the current learning center, which will then have to be renovated at a cost of approximately 1.3 million euros. And the learning center then moves to another location. The municipality says there is enough need for such a temporary school. At the end of last year, about 250 children of primary school age lived in the neighborhood. They now go to schools in the city. In addition, there are another 180 children up to 3 years old who will be able to go to school for the first time in the coming years.
The children could then receive lessons from September until the final school is built. But politicians in Meppel are not in favor of it yet. All parties, except Sterk Meppel and GroenLinks (which is absent during this meeting), fire a constant stream of questions and criticism at councilor Jeannet Bos (D66). A brief summary of the criticism and what the questions are about: too much money in difficult times, residents in the neighborhood have not yet been caught up, there is no parking, it is next to a biomass power plant and the road to it is too narrow.
The narrow road leading there is a particularly challenging point. Adriaan Postma (D66) already sees things going wrong if the temporary school comes there. “Then there are hundreds of extra cars passing through each day. They can barely pass each other. And there is no parking either. What kind of investment is needed to adapt the infrastructure?”
Bos initially does not know the answer to this, after which coalition party VVD and opposition party SP believe that they cannot yet make a decision about a temporary school. “Prior to the debate, I already found this a challenge,” says Hans van Scheijen (VVD). “To spend 1.3 million euros at a time when we as a municipality say it will be difficult. And now the challenge is even greater. Perhaps it is 1.5 or 1.6 million euros,” he is already somewhat in advance of possible costs to adapt the road.
However, councilor Jeannet Bos hopes that this traffic chaos will not occur. “I see a lot of parents with cargo bikes in the neighborhood. I assume that people from the neighborhood take their children to school by bike. The neighborhood is small and compact. And that will remain the case for a while. Maybe they even bring their child walking to school.” At the very end of the debate she announced that the 1.3 million already had traffic measures in place.
Politicians will probably discuss this further in two weeks. Some parties still have doubts about this. They want more information first.