The province of North Holland must stop dwelling on the past with the complete ban on building in green. According to his own words, Minister of Construction Hugo de Jonge delivered ‘a sermon’ with that message in Purmerend this afternoon. Dozens of aldermen and deputies were present there for the signing of Woondeals. Hugo de Jonge: “Stop the religious quarrels about building in green.”
In those deals, agreements were made about, according to the minister, ‘astronomical numbers’ of homes. More than 180,000 in North Holland alone. Given the developments in the economy alone, those numbers will probably not be achieved.
“A village is not a museum. Give those communities a little extra”
Minister De Jonge: “We have to start building outside the city and the village, otherwise we will never achieve those objectives. Moreover, it is also about quality of life. A village is not a museum. Give those communities an extra street. A dash of green has little to do with protecting special landscape or nature.”
He also immediately threatened that the government could enforce building in green by law. “But first the provinces and municipalities have to figure it out themselves.”
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Foot on the brake
On election day, De Jonge did not want to comment on the fact that D66 and Groenlinks are the parties in North Holland that adhere to the strict policy. “I will not comment on parties, but I call on all forming parties in North Holland to keep house seekers in mind when they make agreements about this. Now that policy is a foot on the brakes.”
When asked, the VVD deputy Esther Rommel who was present responded that this call will certainly end up on the negotiating table. Her party is for building in green under certain conditions. Over the past four years, her colleague Cees Loggen had to propagate the position of the Executive Board that this is not desirable.
This article was made by the Metropool editors. The editorial team is a collaboration between NH Nieuws, Omroep Flevoland and AT5 and is journalistically independent. The broadcasters receive a financial contribution from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA).
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