Due to the immediate closure of the Prinsenmeer holiday park in Ommel, there is considerable unrest among the chalet owners. Recreational residents are only allowed to collect belongings and are not allowed to sleep there, illegal permanent residents must leave by mid-September. They feel sidelined and want to talk to the municipality of Asten. That is why they united and the first membership meeting took place on Saturday afternoon. “Our savings are in this and it is now worth nothing,” said chairman Paul Lap.
‘Victims in dire straits! Support us!’, is stated on the posters that are distributed at the end of the meeting. “We want to radiate solidarity, also with the entrepreneurs who suffer if they miss out on income from tourism,” Lap explains. The club wants to talk to the municipality and hopes to achieve more with that solidarity. “The most important thing is that there is a good solution for everyone.”
“You don’t want 150 families wandering through Asten.”
Lap, who is a holidaymaker at the park, finds it strange that as a holidaymaker he is not allowed to sleep over, but the residents are. Yet he mainly advocates for the permanent residents. “You hear about illegal housing all the time, but the municipality has registered the people themselves and now they have to get rid of them. They give eight months to leave, but the housing shortage is enormous.”
Desiree Reddering, chairman of the Recreational Law Foundation, supports the residents and recreationists. “The people standing there are the victims of the dispute between the Oostappen Group of Peter Gillis and the municipality,” she explains. She wants the pressure on permanent residents to leave in September to be lifted. “They are aware that it is not allowed, but there is no other option. I don’t think the municipality of Asten is looking forward to 150 families with children wandering through Asten.”
“We haven’t heard from Peter.”
A municipality that thinks along with them, that is what the group wants. But they are also not happy about Peter Gillis. They contacted us several times, but there has been no conversation yet. “People are extremely angry. When you have the campsite for so many years, you can’t leave it like this without communicating. That is very annoying for all people,” says Lap on behalf of the chalet owners.
Gillis now seems to be hinting at a new season of his reality show. This has gone down the wrong way with many people, says Lap. “Everyone is in uncertainty and he is busy with a new season. ‘We are going to show the pleasant Brabant life’ you hear. Well, it’s not that nice right now.”
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