The municipality of Amstelveen will not become the owner of the piece of Amsterdamse Bos within its own municipal boundaries south of the A9 motorway. In discussions with Amstelveen about the Forest, the municipality of Amsterdam has said that it does not want to sell this piece. The Amstelveense Poel therefore remains the property of Amsterdam.
Until now, Amsterdam, as the owner of the Amsterdamse Bos, has always been responsible for its maintenance. The forest area within the borders of Amstelveen is also maintained by the municipality of Amsterdam. Over the past forty years, it has neglected this task considerably, because overdue maintenance must be avoided in the coming years a multimillion dollar rescue plan be eliminated.
A letter from the Amstelveense board of B & W to the council states that Amstelveen will in any case not contribute to this and that Amsterdam will clear the backlog within five years. The letter was sent following a meeting between the two municipalities on 24 January.
In the same letter, the council states that Amsterdam does not want to sell a piece of forest to Amstelveen. The vast majority of Amstelveen political parties had asked in a motion to present this proposal to the capital. It specifically concerned the part of Amsterdamse Bos south of the A9, including De Amstelveense Poel.
pay more
The municipalities put it together Forest plan 2020-2030 and are now looking at how they will shape a collaboration. Amstelveen wants more control over the forest, which is mainly located in that municipality. Amsterdam wants Amstelveen to contribute to the annual maintenance and to cooperate in ways to increase income from the forest.
At the end of last year, Groen alderman of Amstelveen Floor Gordon seemed to keep her leg stiff. She then told NH that Amstelveen already contributes enough to the forest. “Ten years ago, a million euros was contributed and it was used in all kinds of ways,” says the alderman. “We also contributed about one and a half tons to the bamboo bridge, and last year for a piece of tree compensation at the Wagenaar stadium.”
Now the will to make a structural financial contribution is there, but this would be made more difficult by ‘the retreating movements that the province of North Holland is making from all joint schemes’, the letter states.
That is why the two municipalities will be working together on a project basis for the time being. In this collaboration, the municipality of Amstelveen will have more say, but must also contribute more financially. At the end of the year, it should be clear which projects around the Amsterdamse Bos will be tackled together by the municipalities.