Move to Assen-South
In the meantime, the municipality is making efforts to relocate the company to Assen-South, to the new business park along the A28. Suddenly space has become available there, because a transport company has abandoned an option on a piece of land. “Certainly a nice location on the highway, especially given our work, where we have to turn out everywhere in the North with roadblocks. But to be honest, we prefer to stay here on the edge of Marsdijk. We were always fine here, and there was also further nothing at all, until the misery started with the green belt.”
New construction in Assen-Zuid also has a hefty price tag, fear the Krans brothers. “We would like to move there if the municipality prefers, but for a reasonable price and not for the main prize. What do you think of the construction prices these days and of the shortage in building materials. Moreover, contractors also have a full order book? When can you build then,” says Lucien Krans. The question also arises among both entrepreneurs, how to install a sound barrier at the current location with steam and boiling water at high costs, while you may be moving. “You would think that you would then be able to get an exemption. But that turned out to be unmentionable.”
‘High concrete wall is not possible’
On Thursday, the brothers will compete with the municipality of Assen, because a consultation is planned. Alderman Karin Dekker, responsible for environmental permits and enforcement, wants to further substantively ‘not enter into a discussion through the media about the settlement of the Krans issue’. “We like to talk to the entrepreneurs themselves.”
She is already clear about one thing: the meter-high sound barrier made of stackable concrete blocks that the company now wants to put up there will certainly not be forthcoming. “Such a wall is really unacceptable. That’s much too high, that’s really not possible, they don’t get a permit for that. The noise barrier can be a maximum of two-and-a-half meters high, they know that too. And if you look at the picture of what that wall will look like, that’s hideous.”
‘I thought we were out’
Months ago Karin Dekker also had the idea that Krans had already reached an agreement, about buying back a five-meter wide strip of land by the municipality, and then planting it again. And also about the reimbursement of expenses incurred. This turned out to be a misconception, to her regret, given the company’s negative response to the latest enforcement letter from city hall. “I thought we had come up with a solution acceptable to everyone, but unfortunately.”
The alderman admits that mistakes have been made by the municipality, which they would like to rectify with the cooperation of the trading company. “What should have remained green afterwards, we as a municipality would like to make green again, at our expense. That should never have gone away, that was a mistake in retrospect.”
Threat of closure ‘awkward’
And anything that further damages Krans, according to Dekker, the municipality also wants to put a lot of money into its pockets. But putting all the blame for the affair entirely on the municipality, which is done by both Krans and the neighbors in the back, is not entirely justified by Alderman Dekker. “The entrepreneur himself was also wrong, not just us. The diligence with which they cut down that forest wall, that was just not possible. They really should have made a separate application for that.”
Moreover, according to the alderman, it is ‘simply a given’ that the company on Wagenmakerstraat no longer complies with the environmental permit. And they also have to solve that with noise measures. Just not with a concrete wall. “Their business activities have expanded in recent years, and that causes more noise. That now has to be regulated by law, otherwise they are no longer allowed to sit there.”
Alderman Dekker calls the threatening comment by a municipal spokesperson that ‘the business will be over if Krans does not meet the enforcement requirements in time’. “I did not know the pronunciation, but if it is said that way, it is not useful. We should have a good conversation and try to work it out together.”