“Solve problems faster,” is the message from Mayor Karel Loohuis of the municipality of Hoogeveen. According to him, we are faced with major stumbling blocks in the Netherlands that need to be tackled more quickly. He hopes that the new cabinet will soon give municipalities more freedom to solve things themselves. “What’s holding us back?”
Loohuis made the call during his New Year’s speech in the Tamboer in Hoogeveen. “If we want to be able to live comfortably in our beautiful municipality of Hoogeveen, install power connections and offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to innovate, then we must ensure that everything can be done faster.”
According to the mayor, this is not possible at the moment, because procedures for these types of things take too much time. He advocates laws that speed up everything. “Now we just keep muddling along.”
The mayor believes that The Hague should stop rolling out blueprints ‘in which everything and everyone must fit in’. “Let municipalities, whether or not working together in (sub)regional contexts, offer their own solutions that are appropriate to the scale. The governments that are closest to their residents know the possibilities and impossibilities better than any other government.”
He also states that individual interests play too great a role in procedures. “We have gone too far in this regard. Of course we have to ensure that there are opportunities for participation and that an individual can continue to appeal to an independent judge. But that does not have to take years. Years in which everything comes to a standstill, while there is a great call for the tackle problems.”
Loohuis also said that many residents are concerned about whether they will be seen by the government. According to him, they have lost or are in danger of losing confidence in the government. “They no longer believe that solutions will be found for social issues. If there is one lesson to be learned from the results of the recently held House of Representatives election, it is that this conversation is absolutely necessary.”
He thinks recognition is needed. “Concerns about healthcare, the climate, economic uncertainty, housing, inequality, politics and immigration. It sounds like an open door, but I will open it wide again. Talking to each other is the only solution for our society. “
It was Loohuis’s last New Year’s speech in the municipality of Hoogeveen. In April he hands over the baton to Martijn Breukelman (32), who is still active as an alderman in the municipality of Hardenberg. Breukelman becomes the youngest mayor in Drenthe.