Many Vennepers feel insufficiently heard and seen by the Haarlemmermeer politicians, as it turned out again earlier this week during a charm offensive by the city council in the village. NH followed the route that the Vennepers had mapped out for the municipal council and asked them about their wishes. What could they pay more attention to in the temporary town hall in Hoofddorp?
A group of Vennepers is waiting at the city center for the council members, aldermen and mayor who visit twelve locations in the village in small groups.
Ron de Rooij (55) is one of them. He turns and looks toward the wasteland: an overgrown lawn with large pools of water. “I am ashamed of my village,” he says. “The few houses that stood here were demolished years ago, but nothing has been replaced yet. And that while an apartment complex there would solve so many problems.”
A few meters away, other Vennepers present their plans for temporary measures on the site to the council members. “It’s nice that a plan has been made to temporarily make this part a bit greener,” says Ron. “But building housing should be the priority. If my children want to continue living in the area later, they should have that option.”
Hoofddorp always gets enough attention, according to Ron. “Council members don’t seem to have time for what should be happening here,” he says. “They invest sixty million in the Town Hall, but almost nothing happens in the small centers. I am glad that the council members are here today: they will see with their own eyes what possibilities there are for refurbishing our village.”
“For twenty years we have been waiting for something to finally happen here”
At the next location of the route, in the meeting center, is Willemijn van Klingeren (81), member of the village council. In 1970 she came to live in Nieuw-Vennep for the first time. “The accusation that everything is possible in Hoofddorp and nothing in Nieuw-Vennep was already there then,” she says. “Whether that’s really true, I don’t know, but we experience it that way.”
While the inhabitants of Nieuw-Vennep have been asking for a new center for years, the center in Hoofddorp is being renovated. “When you see the pace at which construction is being done in Hoofddorp, I think: where do they get the money from?”, says Willemijn. “If they spend a little less, there might be some money left over for the other villages.”
It is waiting for new construction according to William. “If all goes well, a pile will be put in the ground for the new building at the end of this year,” she says. “We have been waiting for twenty years for something to finally happen here. We hope that, even with these kinds of occasions, there will be more decisiveness to do something about the center of Nieuw-Vennep.”
In the White Church, the penultimate point of the route, is Marco Kok (32), a member of the church council. There is a big crack in the church. If the foundation problems are not addressed, the facade will eventually collapse. The plans of the church are still in the early stages, ‘but so far we have received good cooperation from the municipality’, says Marco. “We are now seeing the council members for the first time. When it comes to finances and permits, the council members are only actively involved.”
Restoring the church costs a lot of money. That is why the church wants to turn the presbytery into care homes and rent out other spaces to a dentist and childcare. He beckons to a woman a little further on. “She is a dentist and told me she needs an extra chair, but she can’t find a place.”
“There are also good things here: the mall will be tackled soon”
Marco does not recognize the problem that the council pays more attention to Hoofddorp than to other centers. He himself moved from Hoofddorp to Nieuw-Vennep four years ago. “I really like the peace in Nieuw-Vennep,” he says. “And there are good things here too: the mall will be tackled soon.”