Following the province, the municipality of Emmen will not close the subsidy tap for the time being. Alderman Pascal Schrik announced this during today’s council meeting. “But we will consider it.”
Last week it was announced that the park should repay more than 120,000 euros to the province. The Veenpark will also not receive a new subsidy for the time being. The other subsidy provider, the municipality of Emmen, did not want to anticipate developments at the time.
The park will be in trouble at the end of 2019, after which the municipality and province are financially assisting. Both governments are one -off one -million euros in the park and the park also receives a subsidy annually. The park has always been able to save itself for that.
Conditions were attached to the extra help: the park had to achieve the museum status by 1 June and the visitor figures had to go up to 70,000 people. Both were not achieved. That was reason for the province to withdraw.
Dekker asked questions about it during today’s council meeting. Because Wakker Emmen wonders aloud whether the withdrawal of only the provincial subsidy could lead to a possible bankruptcy of the park. The park has to repay the aforementioned 120,000 euros this summer. In addition, the Veenpark has already indicated that it does not have the money in the bank.
Joey Koops (D66) submits a motion on Wednesday in which he calls on the College of B&W of Emmen to actively commit himself to the preservation of the Veenpark, but then under Healthy Financial Government. Koops therefore asks questions about the state of affairs around the Veenpark. He questions the attitude of the current management and supervisory board of the Veenpark.
According to them, the decision of the province came as a surprise, but Koops fights that. “They have received two clear deadlines: at the end of December last year and on 1 June this year. Both times they indicated that they were going to make it. That did not work. Then it is not credible to be surprised now.”
The province has declared that it no longer has faith in the financial situation of the Veenpark. However, the municipality of Emmen seems to be taking a different course, notes Koops. “But if community money is not properly spent, as the province concludes, then we must also look at it critically in Emmen,” he says.
According to Alderman Pascal Schrik (Wakker Emmen), the park has taken a number of important improvement steps in recent years. But indeed, all the conditions have not been met, he says. The fact that the management and supervisory board have responded with surprise to the decision of the province may have been no surprise according to Schrik.
Moreover, a third condition is not met: the replacement of the current management led by Harrie Keuter. The idea was to give the daily management of someone with a more museum background. In this way the park could be introduced a new phase. In that case, the Keuter family could remain the owner of the park, as is now the case. This too should be arranged in the first instance in 2024.
“We have been talking to the table and several times since 2021. We have even stretched the term for achieving the conditions until June of this year.” The decision of the province may have come as a surprise. “Because we were still talking. But the end date was clear.” Schrik expects that it will be a ‘huge bone’ to keep the park afloat in the current situation. “We have conversations with the park to see how the balls can be kept in the air.”
For the time being, the municipality of Emmen is not planning to reclaim the subsidy, following the province. “But as a municipality we will still consider that.”