Gypsy caravan residents in Waalwijk who have to live in a house due to the lack of pitches are completely tired of that. They do not feel at home in a house and miss the togetherness and coziness of the caravan camp. Gonnie de Vaan has been living in a terraced house for 23 years, but she would rather go back to a trailer park today than tomorrow. Problem: There are no pitches. And she is not the only one, because together with five others she wants to take action against the municipality.
“Living in a house is not the same as in a caravan. At a caravan camp, everyone is there for each other. We still want to take care of each other. I miss that togetherness very much,” says Gonnie.
“You just walk into each other at a camp and we all want that. In a house nowadays you often hardly know who your neighbors are.” Gonnie also worries that the typical trailer culture is being lost. Because even for her children aged 18 and 23 there is still no prospect of a place to work.
“That’s how we are. We just want to live together.”
The idea that a trailer park would be a hotbed of crime, where weapons are located and weed is grown, is ‘complete nonsense’, according to Gonnie. “We all work and have our own companies, so I think it’s unnecessary to have those prejudices.” A man who walks his dog agrees: “These people wouldn’t hurt a fly,” he says.
According to Gonnie, it is because of the municipality that there are no places for caravans: “They should have thought more carefully. Just like houses are being built, someone should have thought that we also have children who have to live somewhere. This is just not right. Our children also want to go back to their roots. That’s how we are, we just want to live together.”
“We are being referred from one committee to another.”
It is a mystery to Gonnie why there are still no new caravan sites in Waalwijk: “I just don’t know. If houses have to be built, it goes quickly, but we are referred from one committee to another. we’re all set.”
The municipality of Waalwijk says in a response that it does not recognize itself in the criticism: “We are open and transparent in our conversations with these people. In the municipality of Waalwijk we treat caravan residents the same as other residents.”
According to the municipality, it is not possible to designate a place for a new caravan center from one day to the next due to all kinds of procedures. “We are taking it seriously and trying to solve this complicated puzzle. We will continue to update the people on the waiting list in personal conversations.”
