Young people feel that they cannot go out safely in the municipality of Coevorden. That signal was issued today by the PvdA in Coevorden. It concerns an advice from the youth council that was published earlier in May.
Mayor Renze Bergsma promises that the municipality will investigate what needs to be done to improve safety, so that young people are no longer harassed when going out.
The mayor states that he is in good contact with the center management, the youth council and the police. “I do not have the impression that people feel seriously unsafe, because we have had a conversation about that,” said the mayor.
PvdA councilor Albert Lubbelinkhof himself comes from the catering industry and has always remained involved in the catering industry. “You also hear that there is noise after closing time because there are no taxis when people want to go home,” says the councilor. “That is why fewer people come to Coevorden to go out, because you can’t get away anymore. That is not possible.”
The mayor is very clear in this: “I want to see if we can improve the situation in terms of safety, but arranging transport for catering establishments? That is not up to the municipality. The entrepreneurs themselves or the parents can do that, it is an opportunity for the commercial parties.”
The youth council received signals from peers that young girls were drugged in the local catering industry and larger parties in the municipality and that unwanted touches are often involved.
“For example, a girl was recently drugged at a festival and she was found in a meadow,” says Roy. The youth council has checked whether these and other stories are correct and, by talking to these people, they have come up with many more practical examples. “Unfortunately, we have to confirm that the stories are correct and it is a problem in the municipality of Coevorden,” says the chairman.
More enforcement is something that the PvdA and the Youth Council are asking for. In the form of (youth) boas. Where the PvdA states that there is a direct link between more enforcement and numbers of visitors. the youth council also advocates a youth boa. “Such a person is responsible on behalf of enforcement to identify nuisance caused by young people, but also to keep in touch with young people,” Roy explains.
He himself is a supervisor with a task emphasis on Youth in Stadskanaal and speaks from experience. According to Roy, nuisance is reduced because problems are identified earlier. “I notice that it has positive added value. A youth boa often comes before there are problems and that makes it easier to achieve behavioral changes in the youth.”
The mayor indicates that after the recess a proposal will be made about expanding the boa capacity to the council and wants to think further about information, education, security and police deployment.