Peter Gillis of the Oostappen Vakantiegroep in Ommel has to pay 170,000 euros in penalty payments to the municipality of Loon op Zand. The Council of State has determined this.
According to the highest court in the Netherlands, Gillis has flouted agreements on housing for foreign employees. That happened when he was still the owner of the Droomgaard holiday park in Kaatsheuvel, which falls under Loon op Zand.
Duration year
2023 threatens to be an expensive year for the reality star. In February, the Limburg municipality of Peel en Maas announced that it had imposed a penalty of one million euros on him. The reason: the illegal housing of migrant workers at holiday park De Berckt in Baarlo, which is part of Peel en Maas.
At the beginning of this month it was announced that Gillis must pay 180,000 euros to the municipality of Terneuzen. This also involved accommodating migrant workers at a holiday park, in this case Marina Beach.
The municipality of Arnhem is also hard on the entrepreneur from Ommel. This week it was announced that she wants to end the permanent residence at the Oostappenpark in Arnhem.
Conflict over migrant workers
The conflict in Loon op Zand dates back to 2018. The municipal council then imposed fines of almost two hundred thousand euros on Gillis. The then owner of the holiday park was instructed to reduce the number of holiday homes on the part where migrant workers stayed to two hundred. He also had to stop using the holiday part of the park to house migrant workers.
Gillis did not agree with this and he appealed against the decision of the mayor and aldermen of Loon op Zand to the court in Breda. He partly agreed with him, after which both parties brought the case before the Council of State.
Gillis has not been the owner of Droomgaard for years now. Holiday park chain EuroParcs took over the complex in 2019. But the entrepreneur from Ommel must ‘just’ pay the penalty payments.