It took a while, but the largest municipality in Brabant in terms of area finally has its mayor. Marieke Moorman (PvdA) has been nominated by the city council as the new mayor of the municipality of Land van Cuijk. The search for the new mayor began in April. Now seven months later it has been found.
The municipality of Land van Cuijk has existed since January 1, 2022. Then the municipalities of Cuijk, Boxmeer, Mill and Sint Hubert and Sint Anthonis merged into one municipality. Marieke Moorman (52) has been mayor of Bernheze since 2013. Before that she was an alderman in Tilburg.
Since April they have been looking for a new mayor in (the) Land van Cuijk. Then the profile sketch was drawn up. The vacancy was advertised in May. Only six people applied. Which is remarkable. Land van Cuijk is the largest municipality in Brabant in terms of area and with 90,000 inhabitants it is certainly not small.
“We ended up at the bottom of the pile.”
So it took a long time for the procedure to be completed. Just for comparison: the new municipality of Maashorst also had to look for a new mayor. It was found within four months.
The fact that it took a long time was mainly due to delays at the provincial and national governments. “One way or another we ended up at the bottom of the pile,” says Mike van Diemen, chairman of the confidential committee. “There were many new mayors to deal with. And there was also the summer holidays in between.”
The Minister of the Interior still has to approve the appointment and the King has to sign the appointment decree. But normally that is just a formality.
Wim Hillenaar is now (acting) mayor of Land van Cuijk. The former mayor of the independent municipality of Cuijk was installed in that position at the end of last year. It is not officially known whether he was among the six applicants.