The builders and demolishers had been busy for a while, but today the official go-ahead has been given for the construction of the new city hall of the municipality of Den Helder. The new accommodation will be in two historic buildings on the old Rijkswerf Willemsoord. The client Zeestad BV hopes that it will be finished with Sail Den Helder in a year’s time.
“It is an old custom with ships to place a coin during construction for good luck,” said alderman Heleen Keur this afternoon at the official moment in building 66. “We will also do that here, but we will see how. ” Keur replaced responsible alderman Michiel Wouters, who tested positive for corona this morning.
Symbolically, a banner was then unveiled, showing a coin. Meanwhile, activist Henk van Kuijk played a protest song outside. He and a number of political parties are against the construction of the town hall, which they believe is unnecessary and too expensive. They also feel that the procedures have not gone well.
“Politics has maintained its intention to keep the peace. And the judge has also indicated that there is no objection to building a town hall on Willemsoord,” alderman Keur read from the speech of her colleague Wouters.
Elections
For years, the town hall has been a source of heated discussion and has been on the subject lists of elections. That is the case again this year. The fact that construction is now taking place so shortly before the elections has nothing to do with the campaign, says mayor Jan de Boer. “Look, a mayor is not about the elections, I am completely separate from that. But this had been in the making for a while. We had a period with corona in which we were not allowed or able to do anything. example of, it just falls like this”
Before the official moment, mayor Jan de Boer signed a manifesto with chairman Michiel Tegelberg of the Museumhaven Foundation. When the plans were drawn up, the foundation feared that it would be limited by the arrival of the town hall. “The manifesto states that the municipality understands that the arrival will ensure that life changes at Willemsoord. But that it is the explicit intention that we can continue to do our work,” says Tegelberg.
Opportunities
“At a certain point you also come to the point of looking ahead,” says mayor Jan de Boer. “You have to imagine that you will soon have people working here, both on old ships and on the importance of the municipality in a town hall. And that the town hall can also be used for events. You are then in a national monument, it has just a lot of opportunities.”