Residents living near Efteling will not pay for their parking permit next year. That decision was made on Thursday evening during a council meeting of the municipality of Loon op Zand. For decades, local residents received this permit for free, but from January residents around the park would have to pay 50 euros per car – plus money for a visitor pass.
For local residents, the decision on parking permits earlier this month came as a bolt from the blue. The letter that the neighborhood received also stated that no objection could be lodged against the decision. The residents felt cheated and did not understand the decision.
Intense reactions
The city council was shocked by all the fuss. The council previously approved the paid parking permit. It was neatly stated in the budget for 2025 and that budget was approved by most groups.
Coalition member and VVD faction leader Michel Verhoeven acknowledged that this was not very helpful of the council after the strong reactions from the residents. He said the council “didn’t fully understand” the impact of the decision in early December.
“We will discuss what exactly the solution should be next week,” he said at the time. He also tabled an amendment against the new decision. It had been up in the air for some time that paid parking permits would disappear again for local residents.
Clarity
And now there is clarity: residents do not have to pay for a permit. This was decided on Thursday during the last municipal council meeting of 2024 in the municipality. There were many local residents who attended the meeting, digitally or otherwise.
Due to the great interest, the discussion of the agenda item was brought forward in the council meeting by acting mayor Erik Ronnes. Some local residents were also given five minutes each to express their views during the meeting.
Tonny Meulensteen, councilor and chairman of the local party Voor Loon, also acknowledges that the effects have not been properly estimated. “We have all forgotten what impact those cuts have had on our residents. That summarizes the issue well,” Meulensteen said during the council meeting.
Meulensteen previously pointed out the other side of the story. “We want to place costs more where they are incurred,” he said in early December.
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Efteling residents furious: free parking permit disappears