Alex Lybaart from Drijber appears to have been sleeping at Het Binnenveld for two years, alternately in a small tent and in his car. “I live in inhuman conditions,” the man said in a case before the Council of State.
He lives there without sanitary facilities and a toilet. This must end quickly, he told judge Jan Joost van Gastel yesterday. How? The municipality of Midden-Drenthe must give him permission to place another caravan on his land. Then he can get serious about applying for a permit to build a new farm that has been his dream for twelve years.
The caravan he used to live in had to go. That was in 2020. He also lost his social assistance benefit because he no longer had an address. That problem no longer exists, nowadays he has a state pension. Lybaart hopes for a breakthrough with a lawsuit before the Council of State.
The man lived in a farm on Het Binnenveld for decades. In 2012 he received a permit from the municipality to build a new farm. The old one is being demolished. He is given permission to place a chalet on the plot and two shipping containers for his belongings. It happens. But nothing else happens. Nothing is being built.
In 2018, the municipality of Midden-Drenthe thinks it was a good thing. The permit for construction is revoked. The chalet and the containers have to go. The site is then empty. In 2020, Lybaart will place another caravan there. He has to live somewhere, he says. The municipality is taking strong action. Lybaart must pay a penalty of 2,000 euros per month if he does not remove the caravan. He does that, and since then he has lived on Het Binnenveld in a tent and in his car.
He has an apartment in The Hague, but he does not want to live there. “No one should be evicted from their own land,” Lybaart said. For that reason he wants to stay on his property at Het Binnenveld.
The matter can be easily resolved, a municipal spokesperson said. The man must submit an application for the construction of a residential house. If he has the permit in his pocket, he can obtain permission for a caravan to live in during the construction period. The sea containers can also be returned. The municipality emphasizes that the permission is for a maximum of two years and that construction must actually start.
Lybaart is afraid of the two-year term. He doesn’t know if that is long enough to build the house. He has an appointment with a contractor in early January, he says. In the meantime, the Council of State will consider whether the municipality rightly put pressure on the man to remove the caravan.
The Council of State will make its decision in six weeks.