The municipality of Haarlemmermeer will not compensate its residents for the stripped-down collection of organic waste this summer. Every year, households transfer hundreds of euros in waste levies, but the municipality is not prepared to compensate residents for the reduced collection.
That is what the Municipality of Haarlemmermeer says to NH Nieuws when asked, in response to the report that waste processor Meerlanden was due to a shortage of personnel and equipment problems. collect vegetable, fruit and garden waste less often throughout the summer† Instead of once a week, Meerlanden will visit once every two weeks until the end of August, the company announced via Facebook the day before yesterday.
Pay less
below that announcement many residents of Haarlemmermeer ask for partial compensation of the waste levy. “I can assume that the residents will be compensated since you are going to skip 4 times? What I think we pay you well for? What a very bad thing,” writes a woman. “Getting less is, I assume, paying less?”, a man wonders.
The request for compensation seems realistic: if a service provider cannot provide a service that has already been paid for, the consumer is compensated. For example, if you have no electricity between four and eight hours, you will receive 35 euros from Liander. And anyone without internet or television for half a day or more due to a network failure will receive on the next invoice in proportion to the duration of the failure.
Force of the majority
Nevertheless, the municipality of Haarlemmeermeer has to disappoint its residents in that regard, especially because the company does not fail to do so with the stripped-down collection, according to the municipality. “Introducing the summer schedule is a form of force majeure, a temporary emergency measure that we see throughout the Netherlands. Especially among care and service providers there is a shortage on the labor market, pressure on staff and absenteeism due to illness.”
“May I bring the maggots crawling out of it to you?”
Bart Koper from Nieuw-Vennep finds ‘it is very special how a service provider can unilaterally change a contract in connection with a shortage on the labor market’, he tells NH Nieuws. “It cannot be the case that the customer of a service is the victim of this, because it is not the responsibility of the customer. It therefore seems only logical to me that compensation takes place.”
Warmest months
The buyer emphasizes that he finds it ‘extremely annoying’ that the waste has to be left standing longer in the hottest months and will therefore cause nuisance. These concerns are broader in scope, according to the responses to Meerlanden’s Facebook message. “May I bring the maggots crawling out of it to you?”
Sander Jansen from Hoofddorp is also concerned about vermin. “That’s something the council shouldn’t want.” He says he understands that this is about force majeure, but does not think that is a reason not to compensate affected households. “They (the municipality, ed.) should take care of that in an orderly manner. If they can’t do that, or if the rules of the game are changed during the game, you can expect compensation for that.”
Consumers Association
Spokesperson Gerard Spierenburg of the Consumers’ Association tells NH Nieuws that he understands that Haarlemmermeer residents are asking for partial compensation for the waste levy. “The fact remains that the municipality and waste collector are not doing what they are paid for.”
Whether the municipality does that is another matter. Because the Consumers’ Association does not usually deal with government affairs, the organization does not know whether other municipalities have ever applied such a discount because they were in default.
Incidentally, situations are also conceivable in which a municipality can withhold compensation on legitimate grounds, emphasizes Spierenburg. “Some municipalities carry out waste collection at or below cost, so that can be an argument for not compensating.”