The municipality of De Wolden must be more active in coordinating alcohol policy. Little came of the previous Prevention and Enforcement Plan and objectives were not achieved.
“But waving the finger as a government is not going to work,” noted Mayor Inge Nieuwenhuizen. She manages the security portfolio. De Wolden scores very poorly when it comes to alcohol use, things seem to be better with drugs, although according to Marcel Hulst (VVD) there are more and more reports that heavy use is taking place.
The council factions agreed on Thursday evening about the proposed approach to the alcohol and drugs problem. An amendment from Municipal Interests was tabled. Betty Vrielink-Linthorst advocated the chain in the municipality, for which new policy is currently being drawn up. She thought it was a bit too short-sighted to immediately wave sanctions. As far as GB is concerned, the evaluation of the chain policy will have to wait a while. After some discussion, all factions, except the VVD, agreed to this.
Little capacity
The council was clear that young and old should become aware of alcohol use. Just like the fact that this will take some time. The order in De Wolden should be education, regulations and then enforcement. That last part is the difficult point, because there is little capacity in the police and BOAs have limited powers. “We should definitely focus more on this,” Nieuwenhuizen pointed out, referring to alcohol use and serving to under-18s, which is prohibited by law, alcohol abuse in traffic and undermining. “There was recently a major inspection, where 345 motorists were checked and 17 received a report.”
There are certainly concerns about the policy on drug use, although Henk van IJzendoorn (GroenLinks) expressed reservations about the sewage water study that the council forced with a motion last year. This is how they want to measure drug use in De Wolden. “That costs 20,000 euros and measurements can only be taken at one location for a week. That money could perhaps be better spent, because it provides little information,” Van IJzendoorn thought. The research will happen.