Mayor John Crombez emphasizes that the city council has completed a thorough exercise. “These are tough times. We really had to clean up the budget, but we now have a stable budget,” he says. “There will be no new taxes and we are not divesting core tasks, such as childcare or residential care centers. We are just going to strengthen our core tasks.”
An important part of the savings occurs within the city’s own services. For example, Ostend is reducing the number of service vehicles by a quarter. “We will use 20 to 25 percent fewer vehicles thanks to a digitalized and more efficient system,” says Crombez.