Martien Meiland and his wife Erica have opened a guest house in Noordwijk, but their permits are not in order at all. “They step over that duty very easily.”
Starting a boarding house without checking whether you have the right permits: according to critics, the Meilandjes do business like a chicken without a head. Nice for television, but isn’t there a bad side to the fact that they are now playing hotelier in Noordwijk while there is a residential destination on the Code Rosé building?
Sleeping is living
Rob Goossens, the RTL Boulevard show connoisseur, thinks so. He points out that it is clear that there is a single destination ‘living’ on the piece of land of the Meilandjes. It is true that there is permission for a ‘specific form of living’, namely running a ‘guest house on site’, but then they have to live there.
The Meilandjes are now trying to get the right permit and in the meantime Martien sleeps on a stretcher in the boarding house. But according to criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin, he is violating the law and regulations. “Sleeping is not living,” she says sternly at the Shownieuws desk.
Rob is surprised
You can’t get around the rules this way, says Rob. He says at the desk of RTL Boulevard: “I am also a bit surprised at how easily they go over the permit requirement. I looked again today and the basic destination is housing and not ‘pension and oh yes, also a bit of living on the side’.”
He continues: “Then I looked further: the municipality of Noordwijk, where Erica sits on the city council, is extremely concerned about the affordability and availability of homes. You want if you are a primary school teacher there, that there is a home for you.”
Middle finger
In fact, Martien just raises a middle finger to the housing shortage from his stretcher, Rob wants to say. “If there is a house where people have to live and someone is skilfully circumventing the rules by lying on a stretcher there and then says: ‘Yes, but now I live there’…”
He continues: “I can’t imagine the municipality thinking: well, that’s fine. And certainly not because the municipality does not want to give the impression that they favor municipal council members. I think it could be quite spicy than they think now. If they eventually find a manager who will actually live there, then it can still be done.”
Old situation
That may be the best solution, says Boulevard lawyer Clarice Stenger. “Then the situation is back to the way it was. The previous owner also had a guest house and lived there.”