The municipality of Emmen would like to keep an urban farm in the Rensenpark. But this does not reverse the recent closure of Akka’s City Farm.
The foundation left behind two weeks ago Akka’s City Farm manage to close their doors permanently. Most of the animals had long since left. The foundation has been in financial need for a long time due to higher costs of feed, hay, manure disposal and the vet.
No affordable future
These costs rose to more than 3,000 euros per month. In addition, 375 euros in rents had to be transferred to the municipality of Emmen per month. The Akka’s Ganzenpark foundation behind the farm saw no affordable future and also announced that intensive consultation with the municipality had not yielded a solution.
Responsible councilor René van der Weide of the municipality of Emmen endorses that final conclusion, but says that it certainly did not happen overnight. “Personally, I am very sorry that they have left, I thought it was a nice use of this part of the Rensenpark that was also a good fit for society,” Van der Weide said on Thursday evening after questions from the Emmer municipal council.
No alternative plan
According to Van der Weide, the decision to close was not taken lightly and a helping hand was provided several times. “Ultimately, after three-quarters of years of consultation, the foundation did not submit an alternative plan to us. For example, we wanted to think about a kind of City Farm light variant with fewer animals and less accessible indoor enclosures. We also wanted to look at rent reduction or waiver.”
As far as the municipality is concerned, the exodus from the current city farm is not a final farewell to animals in the former zoo. “We are certainly not going to demolish any buildings and are now investigating internally whether we can find a new party. That may certainly cost something,” said the councilor.
Popular urban farm
With a similar argument, VVD faction leader Patrick de Jonge argued that the municipality could have helped the former city farm financially. “There must be excitement in the Rensenpark and this facility ensured that. As a municipality, we are investing seven million euros in a prestigious cultural center further away in the park, then we could also have invested a smaller amount in this popular city farm.”