1/3 The farm that was bought because of the nitrogen rights (photo: Stefan Klomp/RTV Drenthe).
When you buy a house, you usually want to move in quickly. However, the province of Brabant had a completely different reason to buy a farm in Drenthe more than two years ago. However, nothing has happened since then with the house in the hamlet of Kraloo. “I think someone from the province came here once,” says the current resident.
The province did not buy the farm to take it over, for example for a Bed&Breakfast or a branch office of the provincial government, but precisely to end it. More than two years ago, the provincial government even brought the wrath of a few other provinces, the national government and its own members of parliament. She had bought the farm in Drenthe to be able to build the Moerdijk Logistics Park with the nitrogen rights.
After all permits have been revoked, no commercial animals may be kept on the site. That saves nitrogen and Brabant sees an opportunity to build Logistiek Park Moerdijk. The rights of the farm at Ruinerwold were not enough, so the province also bought a farm in Zeeland and two in North Holland. That is why those provinces also reacted with pity.
In order to find those farms, officials from the province of Brabant went to snoop on Funda, knows RTV Drenthe. And there they came across, among other things, the ancient building in Kraloo. Incidentally, it was not only on the basis of the photos on Funda that it was decided to buy the farm. Ronnes: “Provincial employees visited the farm.” What they will have seen there is a farm from 1700 in a dilapidated state. Broken windows, from the inside you can look out through gigantic cracks and holes have been made in wooden beams due to woodworm and there is a lot of wood dust in the farm.
“Farms came into the picture based on calculations.”
The province has therefore not exactly chosen the property in Kraloo, because it is a typical Saxon farmhouse with a thatched roof or because of its quiet location. “Based on calculations, search areas for farms came into view,” says Ronnes. “Farms had to be found within these search areas to compensate for the nitrogen deposition of Logistiek Park Moerdijk.”
At the farm, which has been for sale since 2019, there are five poultry houses with approximately 45,000 broilers, RTV Drenthe reports. These stables were good for a permit to emit just over 10,000 kilograms of nitrogen per year.
“After all permits have been revoked and no animals may be kept commercially, the location will be put up for sale. Part of it has already been withdrawn,” Ronnes says about the fate of the farm, where a woman has been living anti-squat for over a year. She knows that the province of Brabant has bought her place to live, but: “I think someone from the province came here once.”
“Province wants to leave location tidy.”
Ronnes: “In consultation with the future owner, it is examined whether the stables can be reused for other types of activities.” This means activities other than the commercial keeping of animals.
“If that is not the case, stables will be demolished. The province of Brabant will then take care of the demolition of stables, including the costs thereof. The province naturally wants to leave the location behind.”
ALSO READ:
‘It looks like the wild west’, says politicians about buying up farms in other provinces
Minister Carola Schouten taps the province on the fingers for ‘haphazard’ buying up of farms