You never see them in the Tilburg council chamber, but on Monday evening 150 residents of Berkel-Enschot managed to find the public gallery effortlessly. The villagers protested against the plan to establish a coffee shop in the brand new shopping heart of their village, the Koningsoord shopping center. The council debated this at the insistence of the LST, the Smolders list.
Smolders, like the entire opposition in the council, wants the residents of Berkel-Enschot to be listened to. Nearly 4,500 of them, a third of the total number of residents, signed a petition against the arrival of the coffee shop. But the coalition in the Tilburg council wants to stick to the plan to locate the coffee shop in the shopping center.
In June, it was decided by drawing lots that two new coffee shops could be established in the municipality of Tilburg, in addition to the 11 that already exist in the city. One was located on Verdiplein in Tilburg-Noord and one in the Koningsoord shopping center in Berkel-Enschot. For the first time, not in the city but in a village. The local residents knew nothing and had to hear about it through the regional media.
Verdiplein was dropped
The coffee shop on Verdiplein was quickly rejected because a youth center in the area had not been taken into account. But the plans for the coffee shop in Berkel-Enschot entered the permit procedure. Much to the sorrow of many residents of the village. They are afraid that it endangers young people, deters customers and causes a lot of inconvenience, especially due to traffic.
The LST, supported by the entire opposition, asked Mayor Weterings to put the plans for the coffee shop in the shopping center ‘on hold’ and to think carefully about an alternative plan, such as moving a coffee shop to the edge of the shopping center. city.
Weed experiment
But both Mayor Weterings and the entire coalition of GroenLinks, VVD, PvdA and D’66 saw nothing in Smolders’ plan. Weterings: “I established the coffee shop policy with the support of the council. I don’t want to put that on pause now.” Weterings also thinks about the future in which Tilburg will participate in the national cannabis experiment and legal cannabis will be sold in the coffee shop. “Young people under the age of 18 are not allowed to drink in a liquor store. A coffee shop with legal weed can be compared to this. That fits in a shopping center.”
The process has not yet started
The citizens of Berkel-Enschot had some difficulty keeping quiet during the debate, as is usual in a council meeting. At the end of the debate, large banners with slogans were unfurled. Spokesperson for local residents and shopkeepers is Ben Hamers. Despite the negative outcome for the activists, he is not dissatisfied with the debate. “A month ago there was no debate planned. That has now happened. The process has not yet started. The decision-making process is still ongoing, and because of this debate our arguments have more impact than we would have had without the debate.”
It will become clear at the end of November whether the coffee shop operator will actually receive a permit from the municipality of Tilburg.