Residents of the municipality of Assen are no longer allowed to vote on the arrival of an open-air swimming pool in their city. A majority of municipal councilors want to make the decision themselves.
The municipality would involve residents three times in choosing the swimming pool. First there will be a survey of what they consider important in a possible outdoor swimming pool. The results from that poll are divided into themes and residents can then indicate again what is most important.
In a third round, the municipality would develop various concrete ideas and propose them to the residents, who would then be allowed to vote on their preferred scenario. The votes were to be sent back to the municipal council as advice, but that third step is no longer taking place.
The proposal to cancel the voting round came from VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie. These parties believe that residents are not sufficiently able to make a good financial decision about whether or not to invest in a new swimming pool.
The parties still want to know what residents consider important when an open-air swimming pool is built, but think two rounds of advice are enough. They fear that dissatisfaction will arise if the municipal council does not ultimately choose the residents’ favorite scenario.
The four petitioners find support for canceling the voting round from GroenLinks, SP, PvdA and City Party PLOP. Only Assen Centraal and the one-man faction Lijst De Rijke still want to present the choice to the residents.
In addition, the municipal council has decided that there will be no research into the consequences of a new open-air swimming pool in Assen for swimming pools in the area. Villages such as Vries and Veenhuizen, where many Assen residents go to swim in the summer, are watching the plans for competition in the provincial capital with suspicion.
D66 and VVD proposed to investigate this, to prevent baths in a radius of 15 kilometers around Assen from going under. They only find support for this from the Christian Union: all other parties consider it unnecessary to involve other swimming pools in the research.