No support, a blow to the confidence of residents in the municipality and a larger gap between residents and the municipality. It all comes up when the city council discusses the plans for the renovation of the city hall in Meppel.
It is expected to cost 7.8 million euros. “It’s really a no-go for us,” says Xander Topma, party chairman of the SP. The ChristenUnie is already talking about austerity of the plans. “A stunner for the amount,” says Anouk de Vlieg, GroenLinks party leader, who is also not happy with the idea. “What does this do to confidence in the local government? We think this amount is too high,” responds Hans van Scheijen, councilor VVD. The Labor Party has difficulty with the amount. Eduard Annen, leader of the largest party, Sterk Meppel: “This amount almost resembles a carte blanche.”
Only D66 has no problem with the plans. “It is very clear that the image is unfavorable”, says party chairman Arnoud de Vries. “It doesn’t change the fact that it’s a business investment. This has to happen. If you don’t do it, you keep pushing things like this forward.”
According to the municipality, the town hall, which was built 20 years ago, is outdated and no longer meets the modern way of working. The main problems are that employees on the ground floor cannot work safely due to unfriendly guests, that the meeting rooms are not soundproof, so that other people can hear what is being discussed and that there are too few meeting rooms.
“The plans are going down the wrong way with me, and with me many other people from Meppel,” says Ceciel van der Zee. She spoke ‘as a citizen’ about the renovation of the town hall. “At a time when queues at the food bank are getting longer, the cost of living is rising, the municipality cannot be demanding about its own working conditions,” she says.
She has the support of a large part of the city council. The SP wants the entire plan to disappear in the trash. Nevertheless, the position of party chairman Xander Topma changes somewhat during the discussion. “Do you want employees to feel unsafe here?” Eduard Annen (Sterk Meppel) asks him. “That is a valid point of concern”, replies Topma. “We can come up with a separate proposal to solve that. That will not have to be as drastic as a renovation of 7.8 million euros. Perhaps that has also been solved by extra people at the desk.”
Instead of adjusting the meeting rooms in the town hall, Van der Zee prefers to see the conversations moved to another location. She mentions cultural center De Plataan. This included the Scala arts center, but after the bankruptcy those spaces are no longer used.
“Sitting too long is bad. A short walk can do no harm”, Anouk de Vlieg (GroenLinks) responds to that idea. The town hall and De Plataan are about 500 meters apart. Strong Meppel and D66 are not happy about that. “It takes time in transport or walking to De Plataan. That also costs money,” says Eduard Annen.
Earlier, mayor Richard Korteland gave as one of the reasons for tackling the city hall that officials rent spaces outside the city hall to meet. He indicated that the costs incurred are dwarfed by the total renovation. “But this is undesirable,” he said.
Some parties will soon come up with proposals on the renovation of the town hall. The SP comes up with a proposal to scrap the plan and Sterk Meppel wants to cut the plans up and treat them annually. “We have to explain everything to residents,” says Annen. “Why there is 7 million euros for city hall and no money for Drukkerijmuseum, I cannot yet explain.” The Printing Museum was recently closed because the municipality does not want to increase the annual subsidy of 26,000 euros.
The proposals will be discussed and voted on in three weeks.