The citizens’ budget in Emmen must be followed up, according to the factions of D66, 50PLUS and GroenLinks. In the citizens’ budget, residents of Emmerhout and Nieuw-Dordrecht were allowed to participate in decisions about the spending of part of the municipal budgets.
Residents thus had a finger in the pie about matters in their area. The idea was to result in greater involvement of residents in their neighborhood or village. The municipality put an end to that. But recently the district council of Emmerhout pleaded for a return. The three parties therefore jump to the breach.
The citizens’ budget started in 2016, with residents voting to determine how the money was spent. In Emmerhout this led, among other things, to the construction of a sports square and in Nieuw-Dordrecht to a new entrance gate for the cemetery. This village is also strongly in favor of a return to the scheme.
According to mayor Eric van Oosterhout, the idea behind the citizen’s budget was an oil slick effect on other villages and neighbourhoods. “Some boards were interested in that, others already had their hands full enough with other matters.”
Just to keep the construction going for Emmerhout and Nieuw-Dordrecht was going too far, according to the mayor. “But let’s look at this again with the council next fall. My proposal is therefore to give direction to this in the run-up to the budget (towards the end of the year.”
With that commitment, the petitioners decided to withdraw the motion.