To the city council of Kortrijk:
Introduction
We have decided to prepare this letter after hearing some planning changes in the coming legislature. We have our reservations and concerns about these changes. We will formulate that in this letter.
Energy and Water Costs
A large planned change is the increase in energy and water costs that we as associations will have to pay. We currently pay 20% of our energy and water costs. This would be 100% in the future. For us this is a major financial burden.
Many of us also have buildings that are not well insulated and not energy efficient. We as Chiro’s can do very little about this. But we will still be punished for this.
For many of our Chiro’s, this change ensures a very large cost that we cannot just find the budget for. This extra cost will have to be paid on the basis of extra cash actions or due to an increase in the membership fee. Both are not good options.
At Kas promotions we have to ask more and more time from the volunteers in our Chiro’s to organize and make such actions. We are also increasingly asking the parents of our members to contribute to our Chiro’s.
Our membership fee has already risen in recent years due to higher prices. This even further raising this is not a good option. This increases the threshold to become a member or to stay of the Chiro. In our opinion, the intention is to keep this threshold as low as possible.
It is important that the purchasing power of youth associations does not fall. Due to this increase in costs that we have to pay, our purchasing power will inevitably fall. This would be radical for our Chiro’s.
Renovation subsidy
Another planned change is the loss of the renovation subsidy for youth associations in a non-city building. In Kortrijk there are some Chiro’s that have their own building. For them, the city of Kortrijk will no longer intervene with renovations.
This is a tough additional cost for these chiro’s. This will have major consequences in the long term. Due to the high renovation costs, necessary works will always be postponed. This will ensure that the quality of our chirolokals drops.
Some of us already have a chirolokal that is in poor condition. A decrease in the quality of the classrooms must therefore be absolutely avoided. As a result, more cash actions will also have to be organized or the membership fee will have to be increased. Everything will end up again on the volunteers of the Chiro’s or the parents of the members. This change will also consider greatly on the purchasing power of the Chiro’s.
Other benefits
In addition, we learned that benefits such as free garbage collection and free PMD bags might be disappeared. This also puts extra pressure on the Chiro and its volunteers.
Decision
We find all these decisions very regrettable. We think the changes are drastic. This is because this is about an increase in our contribution from 20% to 100% in energy and water costs and a complete abolition of the renovation subsidy. These are things that will cause major problems in our Chiro’s. We call on the city council to revise these decisions in the interest of all Kortrijk youth associations.