Eelde airport can count on almost 160,000 euros from the municipality of Tynaarlo, to finance increased costs for security, maintenance and the construction of the fire station, among other things. Tonight, a three-month long discussion in the Vriezer town hall came to an end.
This discussion started on February 14 of this year, when the council was first asked to release 75,000 euros for security, personnel and infrastructure, among other things. These extra so-called NEDAB (Non-Economic Services of General Interest) costs will be borne by the municipality of Tynaarlo and the provinces of Drenthe and Groningen, because the municipality of Groningen has withdrawn as shareholder of Groningen Airport Eelde (GAE).
The municipality of Groningen would be responsible for 12 million euros in the investment plan ‘Access Gate of the North’, which should include a total of 46 million euros. So far, the people of Groningen have only paid half, which means that other investors have to pull out the wallet.
The council in Tynaarlo is not happy with that, to say the least. The same applied to alderman Jurryt Vellinga (Leefbaar Tynaarlo). Nevertheless, he asked for this extra contribution, so that they would not saddle the other shareholders (the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe) with extra costs and the airport could submit a balanced budget.
At an earlier stage, alderman Vellinga already indicated that he wanted to talk to the council of the municipality of Groningen in order to persuade them to pay their share of the costs.
Councilor Jan Smits (VVD) repeated today that he is not happy that Tynaarlo has to pay for the costs of the municipality of Groningen. “The airport must therefore insist that the municipality of Groningen pays the costs,” he says. “It is not appropriate that other investors are now the victims of this.”
Together with GroenLinks, D66 and the CDA, the liberals therefore voted against the extra 75,000 euros for personnel and security costs. The VVD did vote for the extra money for the increased construction costs of the fire station at the airport (at 86,500 euros). Only D66 and GroenLinks also voted against it.
Airport director Meiltje de Groot said at the presentation of the future vision of the airport that – if local and provincial authorities are not prepared to pay the NEDAB costs – the airport can close its doors.
At the presentation of GAE’s vision for the future, De Groot stated that the airport has the ambition to go from 100,000 to 350,000 passengers per year. This would reduce costs for shareholders. But even then, the municipality of Tynaarlo and the provinces will have to continue to guarantee the NEDAB costs, believes De Groot.
The municipal council of Tynaarlo intends to have a substantive discussion about the future of the airport in Eelde in due course. The role of the municipality as a shareholder will also be critically examined. It is not yet clear when this will be discussed in the council.