The government, province and municipality will discuss the future of the village of Moerdijk on Monday. The residents of the village view the conversation with mixed feelings, especially now that the province argued for a postponement of the plans on Friday. “Pull that bandage off in one go. It hurts for a while, but now they are pulling it off millimeter by millimeter. That makes it much more painful.”
The date of December 1 has been circled in the agenda of the residents of Moerdijk for weeks. On this day they will probably get more clarity about the future of their village. The municipality previously advocated closing the village, but the province announced on Friday that it wanted to postpone this decision. ZuidWest TV spoke to residents from the village about the situation.
After the message from the municipality on November 11, Marianne Quik started the Moerdijk Residents’ Collective Foundation. This together with various residents: tenants and homeowners, elderly and young people, native Moerdijkers and people from outside. With the collective she wants to fight for the village in the legal field. “I think we are making a slightly louder voice, but with legal facts.”
No high expectations
Another resident, Liesbeth de Kroon, does not have high expectations of the conversation on Monday. Especially after the province announced on Friday that it wanted to postpone the decision. She wants more research to be sure that the village really has to make way. “We do not expect a decision, because the province now wants more time,” says Liesbeth.
Marianne also does not expect a final decision. “Until Friday I had the idea that they were going to give it a blow.” But then the province announced that it wanted to postpone the decision. “The government is going to hide behind the province and look at it a little longer,” she says.
Marianne does not like a possible postponement. “That is unacceptable. You cannot leave people in uncertainty for so long.” Liesbeth: “It’s still manageable until June 1. But we don’t want to be kept on the line any longer. We’ve been struggling with it for ten years.”
‘Same government as in Groningen’
In addition, according to her, the package of preconditions has not yet been worked out. “Alderman Danny Dingemans says he is going with a whole package of measures, but that has not yet been finalized.” A possible departure arrangement and the quality of life projects still have to be made.
Until then, Liesbeth remains hesitant. The compensation must come from the government. “That is the same government that has kept the people of Groningen in line. We must expect compensation from that government,” she says skeptically.
‘Genie is out of the bottle’
Monday’s conversation gives Liesbeth mixed feelings. She does not want it to be decided that the village must be removed if it later turns out that less space is needed. But she also hopes that no decision will be made just because ‘the residents want clarity’. “I also want a well-thought-out and substantiated decision,” she says.
But as mentioned earlier, according to Liesbeth, the genie is out of the bottle: “The image of the village has already been damaged. Even if they were to reverse everything. That negative image remains and has always been there.” Marianne agrees with this. “The village cannot recover from this.”
Powerless
Marianne hopes that clarity will come on Monday. “Pull that bandage off in one go. It hurts for a while, but now they are pulling it off millimeter by millimeter. That makes it much more painful,” she says. If it later turns out that the village can stay after all, she wants that in black and white: “Then they don’t have to show up on the sidewalk again at a later time because they need space.”
The residents now have to wait and see. “It feels powerless, because decisions are being made about your future. That’s strange. Normally you make the choice to move yourself,” says Liesbeth. Marianne is happy with what they have achieved with the foundation in the short time. “It’s what we hoped for and more than we could have dreamed.”
Here you can read all the stories about the disappearance of the village of Moerdijk.