Residents of the Huizer neighborhood who fought against the arrival of an electricity house have received no response from the judge. The house will be built anyway, and they will also have to reimburse almost 4,000 euros in costs incurred.
The residents of Kleinejanstraat and Prinses Irenestraat believe that the transformer house will be too close to their homes. In addition, they believe that the municipality should have communicated better that it wanted to sell the land to Liander and that they should have been given the opportunity to make an offer for the plot of land themselves. The neighborhood wanted to place a vegetable garden or bench there. Because there was no opportunity for participation and a discussion with the municipality was also possible, they had no choice go to court.
But the judge ultimately agreed with the municipality of Huizen and Liander. According to the judge, the municipality has indeed complied with the rules.
Paying 4,000 euros in legal costs
Just before the hearing, local residents received a letter from Liander’s lawyers. It stated that their case would have no chance of success and that they would have to pay the legal costs if they lost the case. This was done by the residents considered quite intimidating. Liander denied that this was the intention. It was “a nice way to inform them,” their lawyer said during the hearing.
The Huizers must be reimbursed for the legal costs by the judge. According to the judge, this is legally common in these types of cases. This concerns twice 1,973 euros, for both grid operator Liander and the municipality of Huizen. Almost 4,000 euros in total.
‘Democracy disabled’
“This is democracy eliminating democracy,” summarizes local resident Brian Tjemkes. With this ruling, the municipality and Liander have a license to make everything right again afterwards, he says. They saw summary proceedings as the only form of participation, for which they would subsequently be punished by the judge. “We are not sore losers, but if we had simply been included in the discussions and it had turned out that this was the best option, we would have made peace with this.”