Reason for Municipal Interests (GB) to pull the handbrake, although the party is going against its own councilor Ivo Berghuis and coalition partners PvdA and VVD.
The largest coalition party believes that the consequences of building on the sports park and a combination of use by (cultural) associations and secondary education have not been properly investigated.
GB receives support from opposition parties D66 and CDA, although the parties do not want to put a stop to building on the football field in advance. They do want the council to come up with a new proposal for a location.
The parties say they do not yet have enough information to make a good choice. They want to know more about the impact on sports and other ‘core facilities’, the living environment and road safety.
They also want insight into the costs of the center, any nuisance measures, compensation for the football club and how important the role of the Dr. Nassau College is involved in the management and use of the building.
The parties also want the follow-up research to no longer assume joint use by Dr. Nassau College, but it is being examined whether the center should primarily be available to all associations in the village. Also clubs without a cultural background.
With an amendment, an adjustment to the existing proposal, they force the council to carry out the new research.
The occasional trio gets the full support from VVD, PvdA and GroenLinks. These parties find it incomprehensible that another investigation is necessary and unacceptable that residents of Gieten have to wait longer for a cultural platform.
“I find this very irresponsible,” says Frits Klein-Langenhorst of the PvdA. “Casting has been waiting for far too long,” says GroenLinks councilor Lukas Koops. “This is an insult to the council and our organization,” said Henriëtte Rossingh-Van Os (VVD).
Responsible councilors Berghuis (GB) and Richard Heling (VVD) are just as upset. They point out that the research that GB, D66 and CDA want will cost a lot of time and ‘millions extra’. In addition, the councilors find it too unclear what exactly they should have investigated.
“We look at the whole scene with amazement,” says Berghuis, who points out that the council has already fulfilled a previous order from the municipal council. “And now you are giving us (…) what we believe is a new and impossible assignment, with all kinds of new criteria.”
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