Housing and care company Menen must return a piece of land from a justice of the peace

The healthcare company wanted to sell the piece of land in 2020 for 380,000 euros.

In 1992, the OCMW could have acquired the land next to the residential care center Ter Beke in Geluwe very cheaply, for the expansion of the residential care centre. But those grounds were never used for that. Municipal Councilor Bert Verhaeghe (City List): “I have always warned that this way of working was legally impossible. A government cannot first acquire land for public use and then put it on the market at a particularly high price. The sale was subsequently withdrawn, after which the land was taken over for public use. A bicycle shed for the staff and a garden to get lost in for the residents of the residential care center will be built on these grounds. Knowing that a re-transfer procedure was pending before the court, it was certainly not very wise or prudent to incur these costs. These now threaten to be lost costs, with staff and residents suffering the greatest disadvantage.”

The housing and care company must also pay a compensation of 1,170 euros to the family involved and must also pay the summons costs.