It should not be the case that Westerwolde continues to suffer from millions of euro shortages on its own buildings for years to come. Costs must be reduced sooner.
This is stated by the political parties in the municipal council. They have instructed the mayor and aldermen to increase the pace when it comes to the future of municipal real estate.
In the millions
This real estate involves more than 100 buildings, buildings and other ‘objects’. The town hall in Sellingen, for example, some village houses but also the Burcht in Wedde.
The costs for the maintenance and upkeep of all these buildings run into millions every year. “Almost 6 million, while the budget includes 2 million, so there is a deficit of 4 million,” says Marjan Heidekamp, leader of the coalition party CDA.
List presented
B and W want to reduce these shortages and have presented a list of which buildings they want to keep, which they want to dispose of (De Burcht and some village houses are included) and which they want to investigate further for the future. They want to spend two years on that research. If their wish list is implemented, the deficit would drop by about million.
But the political parties want more pace. “It is financially irresponsible to have such shortages for a few more years,” says Heidekamp. “Especially because we are also dealing with maintenance shortages on bridges and roads, we will soon receive a list of these.”
Talk about future
The politicians have therefore asked the daily managers to quickly clarify why they want to keep that building and not another. “And also what the social consequences of those measures are. We as municipal councilors can then talk about all that,” says Heidekamp. “Then the users of buildings must be contacted, especially the buildings that we want to dispose of, to discuss the future.”
Councilor Henk van der Goot says that the requested clarity about the proposed choices will be available soon. “Then the city council can discuss it and make a decision. Certainly we will talk to users when choices have been made. We have also had contact with users in the past period. I would like to emphasize that our intention is to keep facilities available. If we dispose of a village hall, we want to see whether we can maintain that facility in another way.”